Tony Stark's Heart
by angryfox
Summary: The team knows Tony—he is a selfish, impulsive, playboy that doesn't work well with others. Which is why they don't understand why Pepper still works for Tony or why Fury lets him do whatever he wants. It's only when the team discovers that Tony is hiding something—someone, that it becomes clear they actually don't know Tony at all. (mentions of child abuse, tony's secret kid)
1. Chapter 1

**REVISED VERSION 10/7/18 – This is almost the same as before, I just wanted to make it cleaner and add a few details. I'll keep the original author notes as well**

 **Hello! This is my first work on fanfiction ever! I really like the Tony has a secret kid plot so that is pretty much what this is, haha.**

 **Summary:**

 **The team knows Tony—he is a selfish, impulsive, playboy that doesn't work well with others. Which is why they don't understand why Pepper still works for Tony or why Fury lets Tony do whatever he wants. It's only when the team discovers that Tony is hiding something—someone, that it becomes clear they actually don't know Tony at all.**

 **Pairings: N/A**

 **There are some mentions of child abuse (very minimal) in this story but I have the more detailed sections in bold with a little warning beforehand if you still want to read. This work as of right now has no pairings but I will most likely add some in later. This is set before the first Iron Man movie but it will go pretty fast through the events of the movie since I'm going to focus on the events of the first Avengers movie and then go from there. Tony is a little younger in this, late twenties I'm thinking.**

 **I do not own any Marvel characters or movies. All rights go to their owners.**

* * *

A drunken Tony Stark stumbled into the mansion, greeting Jarvis with a low slur before collapsing on the Italian leather couch. It was one of the rare nights he didn't feel like living up to his playboy persona. He thinks he was at a charity dinner but he doesn't tend to keep up with what event he was attending—he just went where Obie tells him to go and hands out checks when asked. Plenty of the women there had thrown themselves at him—not only was he extremely handsome but after his parents' deaths he was the richest young bachelor in the world. Most of them had been pretty, some drop dead gorgeous and meeting the superficial standards of his nightly conquests, but even he got tired of one night stands every once in while. Pepper would be pleased at least. A morning where she didn't have to escort a disgruntled and sometimes very pissed young woman out was a wonderful way to start any day.

He lasted about five minutes staring at the ceiling until he decided to head down to the lab. After the last time he had tinkered while drunk, Pepper had put a ban on all of the fun tools—specifically the flame thrower. He didn't see what the big deal was, he only had mild burns and the company had ended up with a new top of the line product. Pepper threatened to quit however, and so, even though he could easily override Jarvis and unlock his tools, Tony stuck to using holograms to make designs and Jarvis fabricated the best ideas in the mornings.

Plopping down at his work station, Tony cracked his fingers before stretching his arms above his head. Dummy wheeled over with a package of blueberries and mug filled with scorching black coffee. The robot whirled and clicked in satisfaction as Tony patted its head and took a deep gulp of what he believed to be liquid gold.

"Jarvis pull up last night's schematics. I thought of some improvements we can make to the repulsorlift function."

"Of course, Sir." 3D blueprints surrounded Tony as the latest missile he was working on was pulled from the server. _Jericho_ was written in cursive on the top of the schematic. It wouldn't be on the market for year or two, Obie liked to release Tony's inventions at a slower rate—often saving the best ones for after Tony's latest scandals. Investors tended to forget a drunken escapade when a shiny new weapon is dropped into their greedy little hands.

"Jar, make the power system bigger- "

A crash makes Tony stop and whirl around in his seat in an attempt to locate the source of the noise.

"I swear Dummy, if you broke another Goddamn coffee pot I am going to disassemble you into scrap metal." The robot was nowhere to be seen.

"Sir, I do believe the crash came from the living room."

Grumbling, Tony makes his way up the stairs to find out what kind of trouble the bot got himself into this time. He knew he shouldn't have given Dummy access to the lift—he just got sick of the bot trying to get up the stairs and falling all the time. It isn't until the wailing starts that Tony's heart rate quickens and confusion makes him pause. That didn't sound like a robot. Only when the sound gets louder does he start running up to the main level taking the steps two at time. His eyes widen as he spots Dummy whirling around the coffee table frantically.

 **(if you are squeamish or don't want to read the more morbid parts skip the ****bold**** sections)**

A small thrashing lump is the source of the wailing, a dark red liquid slowly seeping into the rug around it. Tony carefully pulls back a sticky blanket to find golden eyes staring back at him. The wailing stops for a second in surprise but soon the golden eyes are flooded with tears and what Tony has now realized is a child—no a baby—is screaming at the top of her lungs.

 ******Tony pulls back the rest of the blanket and his eyes widen even more as shock and disgust fill him. Three stumps and one right arm extend off the child's torso. Both her legs end just above where her knees would have been; her left arm forearm were missing. He tries not to gag at the smell of burned flesh. The appendages seemed to have been recently removed—sutured would be more correct. The burned ends caused the wounds to not bleed as badly as severing them would have—but it is clear to Tony that he needs a doctor here** ** _now._** *********

"Jarvis call Dr. Clemmons. Tell her its an emergency and I'll pay her whatever she wants once she gets here."

"Of course, Sir."

"Call Pepper too. Tell her the same thing. Leave the front door unlocked."

"Right away, Sir." The baby is only sniffling quietly now, her screaming having tired her out. Tony is terrified to touch the child but he knows he can't leave her bleeding on the floor. He scoops her up as gently as he can and unconsciously coos at her when she whines in pain. He drops the dirtied blanket on the floor, leaving the child in only what he assumes is a diaper.

Doing his best to soothe her, Tony carries the infant over to the kitchen table that the interior decorator had insisted he get, it had cost $20,000 and was made out of the most expensive wood the woman could find. He had never once used it until now. It would most likely be ruined after tonight and the tiny blonde that had designed his kitchen would die in despair. Tony had no regret pushing the matching table set off to make room for the child in his arms. Dummy bumped into his leg causing Tony to look down at the robot. In his mechanical claw is a couple of towels as well as some blankets thrown over his body.

"Good boy," the genius pats the robot and grabs the cloths.

Tony wraps the child in a blanket and uses the towels to loosely wrap around the stumps. Increased whimpering causes him to go slower and try to provide some comfort. He can't help but wonder how she got here, but he'll worry about that later.

"Sir, both women have arrived."

Tony turns to see Pepper and Dr. Clemmons round the corner into the kitchen area to then pause in shock. Clemmons recovers quickly and rushes to look at the child's wounds. Pepper stands with her mouth agape.

"How did she this happen?" Clemmons is unwrapping the towels as the child starts to become more distressed at her wounds being touched. Tony grabs the only hand she has left and runs his other hand through her hair. Teary golden eyes stare at him as her whimpers soften at his touch.

"I don't know, I came up from the lab when I heard a crash and I found her over there."

"You don't know how she got here?" Clemmons raises an eyebrow at him.

"No."

"Jarvis would have the surveillance footage of the room, right?" Tony looked to Pepper and nodded. She pulled out her Stark tablet and walked to stand next to Tony. While Pepper had initially been frozen in shock, she had recovered and returned to her normal, professionally cool self. Tony had never been more grateful that he had stolen the red head from his company, her composure in all situations was one of the many reasons Tony kept her as his P.A.

"Jarvis play the security feed from the living room from a few minutes before Tony came up stairs."

"Yes, Ms. Potts."

Clemmons continued to treat the child as the pair watched the tablet. Only an empty living room is shown on screen until a few minutes later when Dummy rolls into the view with a couple mugs dangling from his claw. The robot must have been doing the dishes. Dummy leaves the living room quickly and the activity on the screen remains non-existent for a couple of seconds. A sudden bright light above the coffee table causes the screen to light up and blind Pepper and Tony momentarily. What can only be described as a vortex of white and blue throws a cloaked figure onto the coffee table, shattering the glass. The figure stands up quickly, slightly stumbling but manages to gently place the bundle on the ground along with a note off to the side that Tony hadn't noticed before. The figure clutches its side and reaches out to the child one more time before falling back into the closing vortex.

"What the actual fuck was that?" The pair blinked at the screen.

"Tony- "

"Who was that?" His breathing was becoming erratic, some cloaked dude had just broken at least a couple dozen law of physics!

"Tony we- "

"Pep I'm kind of freaking out here because that was not okay. What even technology makes a weird teleportation-vortex thingy?"

"Tony listen- "

"And what was with the weird Assassin's Creed guy? Who wears a cloak anymore? Did he do this to her? Who the hell cuts off a kid's arm and legs? We have- "

"TONY!" Tony stopped his hysterical rant to look at Pepper.

"Tony we have to call someone. This isn't for us to handle."

Tony blinked and looked and the little girl on the table in front of him. Her golden eyes were locked onto his form and her bottom lip was trembling. Silvery-white hair that he hadn't noticed before was sticking up at all angles on the top of her head. He looked to see he had never let go of her hand despite Clemmons having finished before they finished watching the tablet. Her hand was tiny with chubby little fingers that were wrapped around his index finger. She couldn't be older than a couple months.

"No. No, we can't do that." Pepper's eyes widened as she stood up in shock.

"Tony, this kid just came from a vortex. That isn't normal! We have to call police or the government or something!"

"We can't call anyone, Pep," the billionaire poked the child's belly and felt his heart warm as she giggled, "What do you think they will do when they found out how she got here? You're right, anyone can see she isn't normal. She'll be sent to a lab or be stuck in some government facility for the rest of her life."

"He is right you know. Even while I was treating her, the burns were already healing at a rapid rate. Her body would have sealed the wounds on its own even if you had not called me." Tony and Pepper look at Dr. Clemmons as she began to pack her medical supplies back into the bag she had brought with her, "Every lab will want to get their hands on her for research."

Pepper's face drained of color as she looked at tiny child laying on the table. Her tiny body fought to stay awake but exhaustion was slowly getting the better of her. Tony was right, they couldn't call anyone.

"What do we do with her then?" Clemmons smirked at Pepper as Tony began to run his hand through the child's hair again. After retrieving the note from the floor she held it out to Pepper, it read simply:

 _Take care of her._

"Well it looks like whoever left her isn't coming back. And it seems like they have bonded," the older woman watched the genius's expression closely, she'd seen that look many times in her career.

"Oh no, Tony couldn't do that." Pepper shook her head; Tony could barely take care of himself.

"I think I want to." Her head snapped to look at Tony, he was still focused on the child in front of him.

"Tony, you can't be serious."

"I am serious. She needs me Pep." Clemmons had helped settle the infant into Tony's arms and he was now looking at her with those damn puppy eyes of his that were hard to resist on a normal day. She stood no chance with him holding a broken child in his arms. She huffed in annoyance and hoped this wouldn't backfire on her.

"Fine, but you have to take care of her. And that means no partying every night," Pepper put her hands on her hips and gave her best no nonsense tone to the adult man in front of her.

"Of course."

"I mean it Tony. She needs to be bathed and clothed and fed and dear God, what have I just agreed to?"

"I don't know yet, Pep, but I think it's something good." Tony didn't know why, but ever since he had first gotten a glimpse of those golden eyes he felt like she should be his. He needed to protect her.

Pepper's shoulders just slumped in defeat. All she could hope for is that she wouldn't regret this later.

* * *

***line***

Dr. Clemmons returned the next week to check in on the young patient. Tony hadn't bothered to ask her to keep the child a secret, he knew she would never violate his trust. There was a reason why she was his private physician. In that week, Pepper had gotten papers drawn up and paid their way past the usual legal channels in order to make the adoption quiet and quick. A baby swing and other new additions of baby-themed furniture had also been added to the room.

Dummy sped past her to meet Tony at the top of the steps leading to the lab. The broken child she had met the week before was giggling as Tony praised the robot and took the bottle from the extended claw.

"How is she doing?"

"Well she sleeps a lot. And eats a lot. And poops too. Like a lot. Like more than five times a day sometimes. Pepper said its normal but I don't believe her. Is that normal?"

"Yes, Tony, that is normal." Clemmons chuckles as Tony sits on the couch and sets the bottle down on the new coffee table. The baby girl looked annoyed that her meal had been cut short.

"It looks like the skin has healed over the wounds." Tony held the infant so Clemmons could examine her without the child making a fuss, "I don't think she has been blessed with the ability to back limbs however."

The three stumps were now smoothed over as though she had been born that way rather than having the appendages removed later. Clemmons was amazed by the child's quick healing, it made her wonder if it was a natural ability or if she had been experimented on. She had a feeling it was the latter.

"Yeah, I figured. I'm already working on something to help her when she gets a little older. I'm going to need your help with it though."

Tony picks the bottle back up causing the baby to wiggle in anticipation. Clemmons only raises a single eyebrow as Dummy hands her a tablet.

"You're going to make her mechanical limbs?"

"Not yet, she is too little for me to fit anything on her but I want to start researching now with your help. You can stick your name on it—equal credit, it would be a great move for your career. I can use SI to introduce them and legalize them in the medical world. By the time she is ready to walk, we could have them ready for her."

"Most babies take their first steps at around ten months. You're telling me these mechanical limbs will be integrated into the medical world in the next year?" Tony rolls his eyes at the doctor as she ruins his hopes and dreams. Well delays them at least.

"Okay, so maybe more like when she is three or four. She'll be late on walking but she'll be ahead on everything else, I guarantee it. She is a Stark now after all."

"Is she now? Did you finally name her then?"

"Eleanor Maria Stark, Elli for short."

"What a beautiful name Tony." The man only grins as his eyes shine at his now legal daughter. Clemmons never thought she would see the day when Tony Stark had a look of parental pride. It suited him. Elli continued to giggle and gurgle causing both adults to laugh as well. Dummy whirled up next to them, Elli squealing in delight while reaching for the robot with her good arm. As her skin grazed the robot's metal exterior, Elli's eyes flashed an electric blue and the lights began flickering. Once her eyes returned to their golden shade, the lights returned to normal albeit shining slightly brighter than before and Dummy began twirling in excitement.

"Is that normal?"

"No, not really."

"Didn't think so."

* * *

 **Sorry for any grammatical mistakes! I have troubles catching them. Okay, so next chapter I'm going to deal with Obie meeting Elli and start going to into the events of Iron Man. Sorry if Tony seemed a little out of character or a little too eager to jump in on the parenting thing. It will kind of be explained later. Elli's little light show will be explained later too. Thanks for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey guys! Thanks for all the follows and faves! Also, special thanks to Kismet and arthemys for reviewing! I really appreciate it!**

 **This next chapter is going to a bunch of is Elli meeting her Uncle Rhodey and Obie. Didn't get to the events of Iron Man unfortunately. We will get there eventually! It takes place a couple weeks after the first chapter. Hope you all enjoy!**

 **I do not own any Marvel characters or movies. All rights go to their owners.**

They were up early, much earlier than Tony would have ever gotten up before. Elli was a good baby, much better than Pepper's nephew, who in her opinion, was a menace. But babies were babies. And although the little girl was more well behaved then others, she still woke up frequently during the night and demanded attention at the most inconvenient times. Thankfully, Tony's sleep schedule had been erratic even before Elli's arrival and the feedings and diaper changes throughout the night hardly phased him. Tony moved through the kitchen with practiced precision. A bottle of formula was being heated in the microwave while he got his coffee ready. By the time he was having his first sips, Elli would also have her breakfast ready to be chugged down. For the past few weeks, the two of them have been holed up in the mansion. Most thought he was having one of his inventing episodes. Tony and Pepper did not bother to correct anyone.

A few days prior, Tony had decided that very few people needed to know about Eleanor Maria Stark's existence. At least not until she was much older. Pepper and Dr. Clemmons obviously knew already. Obie would have to know once he got back from that business trip in New York. Rhodey was actually coming over today, not that he knew he was meeting Tony's new bundle of joy; it was going to be a surprise. And of course Happy—the man was going to eventually be driving the child to school in order to hide her connection to Tony.

All the secrecy was for multiple reasons, the most basic was that he didn't want her to grow up in the spotlight. He had hated the media watching and documenting his every move as a child and didn't wish for her to go through the same experience. That, and the fact that she had golden eyes and white hair. While he loved Elli dearly, her eyes and hair were obvious signs that she wasn't normal. He had to figure out how to deal with that eventually. Kids needed to interact with other kids after all. Maybe contacts and hair dye?

Tony walked into his bathroom dragging the baby swing behind him. The space was much larger than necessary and had plenty of room for Elli to sit in the corner while he got ready. He put the swing's setting on low so she would be somewhat entertained while he bathed.

Tony is halfway through the lathering and repeating process when the water suddenly shut off. While Elli was good in most regards, she definitely presented her own challenges. Specifically, the whole glowing and shutting off the electricity thing she had going on. He would have to deal with that too, somehow. Since the incident with Dr. Clemmons, Elli had shut off the mansion's power on multiple occasions and this was the third time she had done it while he was in the middle of a shower. She only giggles cutely when he sticks his soapy head out to look at her sitting innocently in her swing, the only sign that she is the culprit is the glowing electric blue color that her eyes are shining in his direction.

"Now you listen here, little missy. You better turn the water back on or I'm going to come out there and tickle you again."

Tony isn't sure if she understands what he is saying, he likes to think she can. The playful threat works though and a little squeal and gurgle accompanies her eyes returning to their (not) normal color. The water flows freely again—colder than previously and making Tony jump in shock and sending a light glare at the child. She totally did that on purpose.

"Sir, Lieutenant Colonel Rhodes is at the front door."

"Let him in Jarvis, tell him I'll be out in a few."

Tony shuts off the water once he is sure all the soap is rinsed out of his hair. Dressing in the clothes he left on the counter, he scoops Elli out of her swing and fastens her into the sling that rests against his chest. Once she is settled, he heads towards the living room to greet his friend. Rhodey is sitting on the couch having obviously made himself at home while waiting for Tony. Sock clad feet are resting on the new coffee table, the television playing some college basketball game that happened to be on.

"Rhodey, my love! How are you?"

"Tony," Rhodey turns towards his friend's voice only to nearly fall off of the couch, "Tony what is that?"

"What is what, honeybear?"

"Tony, don't play games with me." Rhodes drags a hand down his face—he was not prepared to deal with this when he left the house this morning.

"You're going to have to be more specific, platypus." Tony stands with his hands on his hips, as though he is unaware of extra weight hanging off of his torso.

"Tony there is a child strapped to your chest. Why?"

"Oh my goodness! There is a child attached to me! How did you get there?" Tony pokes the child on the nose causing an eruption of giggles.

"Tony," Rhodes sighs and Tony sits down next to him on the couch.

"Fine, sourpatch. Gotta ruin all of my fun," Tony pulls the child gently out of sling so that Rhodey and Elli can both get a good look at each other, "Elli this is Uncle Rhodey, Rhodey this is Eleanor Maria Stark—my adopted daughter."

Rhodes stares at the now fully exposed baby. The sling had hidden some features and now he couldn't help but stare.

"Tony, why the fu- "

"No swearing. One of Pepper's new rules." Rhodey blinks at Tony.

"Okay…Tony why- "

"Does she look this way? Don't know, it's all natural though, Clemmons checked her out. Or why does she only have one arm? Don't know that either, she was dropped off by some medieval looking vortex travelling wizard, didn't stop to chat or explain anything—only left this really vague note. It's okay though 'cause I'm working on prosthetic limbs now so that's cool. Or why did I adopt a baby? I just felt that I was supposed to, if that makes sense. Probably not. I've had her for a couple weeks and she is legally mine now, by the way, so even though you may find her adorable, you can't have her."

"…did you just say vortex travelling wizard?"

"Yeah, I'll have Jarvis show you the footage later. Anyways, you want to be the Godfather?"

"Jesus Tony, I've only known about the kid for 2 minutes," Rhodey was still trying to wrap his head around the whole thing and while usually he could keep up pretty well with Tony, he had to admit he was struggling right now.

"So is that a yes? Because while Obie is great and all, I would rather not ask him"

"Shit… "

"Language!" Rhodey raises his eyebrows at Tony in an expression that said _really? You of all people telling someone else to watch their language?_ Rhodes had to admit though, he could already tell Tony was dedicated to this.

"Of course, I'll be your kid's Godfather," Rhodey just snorts in defeat as Tony whoops and bounces the baby on his lap. If there is one thing he has learned from being Tony Stark's best friend, it is to just roll with the weirdness, "let me hold my Goddaughter then."

Tony hoists Elli up from his lap and gently deposits her in Rhodey's arms. She giggles a contagious baby giggle that causes both men to laugh as well.

"She really is adorable."

"Told you! Wicked smart too, I can tell already." Rhodey only shakes his head at Tony and begins to tickle the baby girl gently. Her eyes suddenly glow and Rhodey nearly drops her in shock. Every appliance in the kitchen sparks to life making both men jump until Tony takes Elli to calm her down from her giggle fit.

"What the hell was that Tony?"

"Now, do I need to get a swear jar for you, Rhodes?"

"TONY!"

* * *

"TONY!"

Flinching slightly, Tony tip toes over to the crib he keeps in the lab. Still asleep, thank God. Should he wake her? Obie is here and he hasn't met her yet. But then again, she has been really fussy the past week and hadn't been sleeping much. Obie or nap? Obie or nap? Tony looks at her peaceful face. Definitely choosing to let her nap.

"Tony do you want to explain to me why the hell there are baby toys all over the front entry way?" Obadiah Stane saunters into the lab holding a stuffed rabbit with a look of complete disbelief on his face. Rolling his eyes, Tony gestures for Obie to come closer.

"Obie shush and come over here to meet my daughter." Obie's mouth dropped at the sight of Tony standing over a crib. He walked over to look down at the demon spawn that would surely cause more problems for him in the future. Tufts of white hair frame a chubby face and a pink knitted blanket covers the child up to her shoulders. Tony reaches down to pull out the thumb the child is sucking on to replace with a pacifier.

"Why didn't you just pay the mother off?" Obie grips the top of the crib so hard his knuckles turn white. Tony glances at Obie and crinkles his nose. He had expected Obie to question, but he hadn't expected the malice rolling off of the man in waves right now.

"I don't know who her mother is."

"How do you know she is yours then? Did the whore just leave the kid on the doorstep?"

"Not the doorstep exactly. Obie, she isn't biologically mine. I adopted her." Obie's fists relax as he turns to look at Tony for the first time since spotting the crib.

"Why would you do that Tony?"

"Why not?"

Obie blinks at the tone, he had never heard Tony speak in such a guarded way before. He returns to looking at the baby sitting in the crib, this just complicated his plans. Why Tony decided he needed a kid right now was beyond him. An awkward silence surrounds them until Obie looks up as Tony begins to speak.

"Her name is Elli since you forgot to ask." Obie just nods and both men look back down as the child squirms slightly to lift both arms above her head. Obie's face twists into in a look of utter disgust.

"What the hell is wrong with it?"

" _Nothing_ is wrong with _her_." Tony is now the one gripping the crib as Obie leans in to inspect the child closer.

"Tony, the thing has no left arm." If the press found out Tony had a child that was disabled, the investors would have a field day. An heir that isn't perfect didn't bode well for the company's future.

"Get out." Something snaps in Tony. He is practically hyperventilating, the anger is boiling in his head, threatening to burst. How dare he say something was wrong with Ellie. How dare he refer to her as a _thing._

"Tony- "

"GET OUT RIGHT NOW!" Tony scoops Elli up as she begins to cry and practically runs up the stairs. So much for her nap. Once locked in her bedroom, Tony bounces slightly on his knees trying to calm both of them down. Pepper eventually shows up with a bottle and a knowing look. She gives Elli a kiss on the head and holds Tony awkwardly in a hug for a few minutes before leaving for the day.

Obie has called multiple times but each time Tony tells Jarvis to ignore them. He isn't sure when he will be able to speak to the man. He will have to eventually, he does help run the company and is the only father figure Tony has ever had. Sitting in the rocking chair his mother used to sit in, Tony watches Elli sleep soundly in his arms. For only having lived such a short life, Elli had already been through so much and Obie dared to judge her for it. The heat in his stomach grew again. Nothing was wrong with her, no matter what Obie said, his daughter was perfect.

 **So Obie is a horrible person but we all already knew that! It was much easier writing Rhodey than Obadiah for some reason. Anyways Elli will be a bit older in the next chapter so her personality will show a bit more and the plot will start rolling a little bit. Again thanks for all the support guys!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Thanks for all the support guys! I love getting emails that someone has just favorited or followed my story! And special thanks to Xaiael, your review kind of inspired one of the scenes (I'm sure you'll be able to figure out which one). AND at the end of the chapter I finally got to the start of Iron Man. Hooray for me!**

 **Again, I do not own any Marvel characters or movies. I also don't own Mickey Mouse or his clubhouse.**

Obie apologized in many different fashions over the next few months. First was the series of phone calls, some sounded sincere, others were complacent and telling Tony not to be so sensitive. Those ones didn't help his case.

When it was clear the phone messages weren't going to cut it, Obie went for a different method. He started sending gifts. Everyday a multitude of baby clothes, stuffed animals, and other baby toys arrived in the mail. Tony tried to throw them out just to make a point, but Pepper stopped him. While Elli already had all the clothes and toys she would ever need, Pepper convinced him they shouldn't waste the gifts. So at the end of every week the local orphanage had an anonymous package delivered as a result of Obadiah's endless… _generosity_.

It was only when a snowy white pony with a big red bow on its tail showed up on the front porch that Pepper had had enough. Tony knew he could've kept it up forever, but his P.A. was adamant that he talked to his business partner/godfather. She wasn't going to find homes each week for whatever animal Obie sent next. And so, Tony forgave Obie in words only. They were okay on the outside, but Tony wasn't sure if he would ever see the man the same way again. And he was most definitely never taking Obie up on his offer to babysit. The man had only offered to gain back favor from Tony, after all.

It was around when Elli had started crawling that Obie felt he could show up at the mansion again and pester Tony about the company. They were in the lab, Elli sitting in a playpen that had a specially made mat so she could crawl without irritating the skin at the end of her legs. While Pepper had ordered special socks meant for amputees, Elli took them off each time and threw them as far as her little arm could chuck them. Which wasn't very far but the kid had a point to make. Tony had laughed at Pepper's frustration and proceeded to made a special mat for his daughter with Jarvis.

"I don't have anything to show you, Obie." Tony sits at his work station with schematics that Obadiah could never fully understand floating around him. The man had shown up with a stuffed bear that was bigger than Dummy and had acted so excited to see Elli, Tony almost threw up.

"Come on Tony. You haven't given me anything good since you adopted Elli. The board is getting impatient," Tony snorted, "I know you still have been working everyday. Pepper told me. Why don't you just show me what you're working on so we can at least throw the investors a bone to chew."

Tony glanced back at the man, the sooner he gave him what he wanted, the sooner he left.

"Jarvis, pull up Project Eleanor." The current schematics and numbers blinked out of existence and in their place a what looked to be a drawing of an arm and a leg popped up. Looking closer, Obie's eyes widened as he realized they were much more than that.

"You're building her replacement limbs?"

"Well, yeah. Elli was the inspiration but SI can produce them too. There are other people in the world like her. And they'll be useful with our military contracts. War veterans and other amputees can put a mechanical limb to good use. I wanted to have them done and legalized before she starts attempting to walk, I would rather she learn with these then having to learn twice."

Obie stared at the floating blueprints with his eyes wide and his mouth slightly open. Only Tony could pull this off in such a short amount of time, and all on his own too. A big grin broke across his face.

"You had me worried there for a while. Thought you had lost your touch when Elli showed up," Obie shook his head while his mind thought of all the profits to be made, he missed the glare Tony sent his way, "This is great Tony. Just fantastic. Make sure to send this to the research department by the end of the week."

Without bothering to say goodbye to either of them, Obie bounded up the stairs already on the phone with a board member that had been particularly vocal the past few months. Tony only rolled his eyes and went to carry Elli upstairs for her afternoon bottle. He had sent the file two weeks ago, Obie just assumed Tony always asked for permission. Not.

Testing was later this afternoon, Tony was actually going in—he wanted to make sure everything was perfect. This project was different. While the weapons he made protected American soldiers, they also caused pain and destruction. These mechanical limbs were going to help a lot of people, not just Elli.

 *********this is my line break because it never shows up the first time I try to do it*********

"Pep, I'm telling you she was trying to say my name earlier." The two of them were sitting at the kitchen counter, Elli's high chair next to Tony so he could feed her apple sauce. Elli's hair was now long enough that Pepper was able to style it into a single pig tail that stood straight up on top of her head. Her onesie was a bright pink that said _'I'm a Daddy's girl'_ in white cursive lettering.

"I believe you, Tony," Pepper continued going through documents Tony needed to sign, humming in agreement but obviously not paying attention.

"Jarvis will tell you." Tony huffed at her lack of enthusiasm.

"She was rehearsing all night, Sir. Must be stage fright." Tony narrowed his eyes at one of Jarvis's cameras while Pepper started to laugh. So she was listening.

"Har, har."

Tony decided to ignore Jarvis and Pepper's teasing. Mostly because it had been a good day so far. Since testing had begun a month ago, the volunteers had reported little to no problems adjusting to the prosthetic limbs. In fact, every subject loved them. A young woman that had once been a marathon runner but had lost her left leg in an accident actually hugged him today. It had felt…nice.

At the rate RD was going, Elli would be fitted with her own in the next year or so. Clemmons said babies generally start walking at a little before the age of 2 and Elli was estimated to be about 8 or 9 months old. It would be perfect timing. And Dr. Clemmons had doubted him. Ha.

"Come on Elli, say 'Dada' so I can shove it in Pepper's face." Elli gurgled incoherently in response but there was definitely a 'da' sound in there somewhere.

"Watch daddy now," Pepper looked up from her papers as Tony elongated 'Dada' into _Daaaaaaada, "_ See, Dada. Now you try."

"Daaaaaaaa..."

"Pepper," without looking over, Tony began smacking Pepper's shoulder, "Pepper it's happening. Oh my God, Jarvis you better be recording this."

"Of course, Sir." Tony was practically vibrating in his seat.

"…Da. Dada." Elli grinned as Tony flew into the air and took a victory lap around the kitchen.

 ********linnnnneee break********

For the special occasion, Tony had dressed Elli up in a fluffy pink dress with gold sequins sown into the skirt. Pepper's gift was currently in Elli's hair, the gold butterfly bobby pins keeping the white tufts of hair out of the toddler's face. It was an anniversary/birthday party due to no one actually knowing Elli's actual date of birth. So Tony decided to just make it the day she had appeared in his living room. They had spent the entire day getting ready. Even though it was going to be a party of five adults plus a 1-year-old, Pepper had insisted on decorating the living room and kitchen. Pink and green streamers hung from every corner of the ceiling and balloons were everywhere. For some reason, Tony had a helium tank in the lab and Pepper had used it to her advantage. A cake with frosting flowers sat on the counter. You would think Tony would have the self control not to stick his finger in the frosting, but unfortunately Pepper has had to have Rhodey guard it all day.

Happy and Dr. Clemmons were coming later, around 6 o'clock. Obie was not coming—he was currently in Japan—but had had a fluffy Golden Retriever puppy with a pink ribbon wrapped around its neck delivered earlier in the morning. Pepper thought she was going to have to take it home until a certain toddler's squeals of delight melted Tony's dislike of small furry creatures. Despite Obie's objection however, Tony had let Elli name the dog and, due to her limited range of sounds, had declared the name to be 'Deedee'. They were currently learning the names of animals and 'deedee' was as close as she could get to 'dog'.

"Elli do you want some apple juice?" Rhodey was in charge of the toddler while Tony and Pepper moved presents from some closet in the mansion to the kitchen table.

"No!"

"No apple juice?"

"NO!"

"That means yes in Elli-speak. She is in a 'no' phase right now." Tony walked past Rhodey with a box wrapped in silver paper with blue balloons.

Nodding, Rhodey filled a purple sippy cup and brought it over to the playpen Elli and Deedee were currently sitting in. There weren't too many presents, a 1-year-old didn't need much. After Pepper had arranged the gifts to be aesthetically pleasing, the three of them sat down to chat. Rhodey drank beer, Pepper a white wine, and Tony black coffee. Not being able to hide his shock, Pepper explained to Rhodey that Tony barely drank anymore. Elli required too much attention for him to be constantly buzzed like her used to be. In fact, Tony hadn't been to a party since last year when Elli had come into their lives. Parenthood had changed the man greatly.

"Sir, Dr. Clemmons and Mr. Hogan have arrived."

"Great, now the party can start!" Tony hopped out of his chair and scooped Elli up to go greet the guests at the door.

The group opened presents first. The presents had included puzzles, books, and various stuffed animals. Tony's favorite gift had been a frame with a photo of Tony bottle feeding Elli. Pepper had snuck it on her phone one day. Tony was wearing a ratty old ACDC t-shirt and his favorite pair MIT sweatpants. It had been early in the morning so both of their hair had had a bad case of bedhead sticking up at all angles. Despite his worn and torn appearance, Tony thought he looked happier in that moment then any one of the photos published by the press in the past ten years.

When it was time for cake, Tony had blown out the candles for the toddler. Everyone had clapped and cheered causing Elli to giggle with excitement. Elli had then been placed back into her high chair with her own slice to dig into. The adults had laughed when she ignored her spork and dug in with just her bare hand. It was while they were eating their own portions of the cake that Tony suddenly jumped out of his chair, startling everyone.

"Elli you come back down here right now!" Everyone's eyes had widened exponentially as they looked up to see a floating toddler. The girl was giggling as she began spinning slowly, an electric blue glow outlining her body. Happy fainted at the sight. Tony chased after her as she floated about the kitchen. Finally, the glow dimmed and the toddler dropped into her father's waiting arms. Dr. Clemmons inspected Elli for any injuries as Rhodey looked up in complete disbelief at what his life had become.

"Is that frosting on the ceiling?"


	4. Chapter 4

**So i'm reposting cause something happened and yeah haha. Thanks The Cloud's Essence for pointing it out. You da best. Again, this is the second half of chapter 3, my computer was having some issues so I split it up.**

Elli wasn't quite sure what to make of the new extensions of her arm and feet. When they had first appeared they had hurt quite a lot, but now they were just kind of there. She was able to get the hang of having a left arm pretty quickly, after all it was just like her right one. The feet were more difficult. She and her daddy were sitting on the floor in front of the T.V. He had placed her on his lap so she could see both of their feet together.

"Now Elli, see how I am curling my toes? Can you try doing that for me?" Pepper had painted both of their toes earlier that day. Her toes were orange because that was her favorite color that week while her daddy's were red and gold.

Concentrating really hard, Elli watched as her new feet twitched a few times before her toes curled just like her daddy's. Her head shot up to smile at her daddy, a bright smile on his face as well.

"Good?"

"Very good, sweetie. Can you try bending your knees now?" Elli nodded and followed her daddy's example.

"Looks like it is going well." Elli squirmed out of her daddy's lap and held her arms up.

"Peppa! Peppa! I can wiggle my toes!" The woman scooped her off the floor and Elli lifted one of her legs to show her.

"Amazing!" Pepper showered her with kisses and then plopped her on the couch so Elli could watch Mickey Mouse. Deedee hopped up next to her and put her head in Elli's lap. Using her left hand, Elli practiced petting gently. Her daddy said that her new arm was very strong so she had to be extra careful.

"They look so real. It's like she had them all along." Elli decided to only pay somewhat attention to what her Aunty Pepper and daddy were saying, Mickey was currently singing the clubhouse song.

"I know. I'm so glad that marathon runner mentioned her friends saying she looked like a cyborg. I wouldn't have thought to make the faux skin sealing."

It was when Elli decided she was thirsty that she discovered she had a problem. Her juice was all the way over on the coffee table! Now normally she would just make it float to her, but her daddy was making her wear her special bracelet. When she was wearing her special bracelet she didn't float on accident but she couldn't make stuff move to her either. And daddy usually let her take it off in the house, but he said she had to wear it until she got used to her legs since she kept using her powers to move them on accident.

Frustrated and unable to get her daddy's attention, Elli shimmied off the couch and landed on the floor with a soft thump. Gripping onto the leather couch, Elli glared at her legs. She could do this, her daddy used his legs to move all the time.

**** mini line break (not an entirely new scene, just a new perspective) ******

Tony was extremely pleased with how the surgery had gone. Elli's prosthetics were slightly different from the others—hers had interchangeable parts due to her being a child, she would need to get upgrades as she grew—but they worked just as well, if not better than the original designs. The faux skin was a great addition that he would introduce to the SI models as well. The only hint at where the prosthetic began was the thin line where the seal met actual skin. Pepper had jumped at the chance to paint Elli's toenails for the first time, and when his baby girl had insisted his be painted too, he hadn't even hesitated. The young marathon runner, Grace had been her name, had told Tony how much she had missed having painted toes. She had said how she felt silly, since it was such a minor thing, but it was what she was looking forward to the most—after being able to run again, of course.

"Oh my gosh, Tony turn around."

Tony whipped around just in time to see Elli take her hands off the couch. The coffee table had been moved so that Tony could sit with his legs stretched out in front of him so it was a little farther than usual. Both of them watched in silence, Tony cheering internally as to not break Elli's concentration. He almost wants to laugh at the Frankenstein walk she is doing, they'll have to work on her bending her knees and ankles some more. When she makes it the four feet from the couch to the coffee table, Pepper and Tony burst in excitement causing Elli to fall onto her butt in alarm. Jarvis made sure to take plenty of pictures.

 *********new scene**********

"Come on Tony, you've barely had anything to do with the company in the past three years. The kid can be watched for a while you go to Afghanistan."

Tony wheeled around to look at Obie on the screen. He was getting some work done in the lab while Pepper took Elli to the park. She was old enough that he could get her to wear tinted glasses and a knitted hat that hid her hair and eyes well enough that someone would have to be paying attention to notice the unique coloring.

"Obie I've never been gone for more than two days. I would rather not travel to a war zone the first time I'm gone for longer than that."

"Okay so a week, tops. And Tony, you're going to be with the U.S. military in the middle of a desert demonstrating a missile. Nothing bad is going to happen."

"For some reason that doesn't make me feel better." Tony snorts and turns back to what he was working on.

"Please Tony, the investors want to see you. Not me, it's not my name on the company." Tony didn't pick up on it but there was a hint of bitterness as Obadiah said those words.

"I'll think about it."

******mini line breakkkkkk*******

Tony squeezed his daughter as tight as he could without breaking her. She giggled sweetly as his beard tickled her cheek as he kissed her in an exaggerated motion.

"Pwomise you'll be back?" Tony leaned his forehead against Elli's as she tried not to pout. She was a big girl and her daddy had assured her he would be back home soon.

"I promise, muffin."

"Peppa said we could go the pawk wheneva I wanted but I don't want Peppa to take me to the pawk. I want you to take me to the pawk." Elli sniffled, it's not that she didn't like Pepper. She just really loved her daddy.

"I know, baby but if you promise to be a good girl for Pepper, we'll go to the park AND get ice cream when I get back." Elli's eyes lit up.

"Ice cweam?"

"Of course!"

Tony chuckles at her excitement, he knows she won't be forgetting that promise. He reaches down into his pocket when his phone starts to ring.

"What's up, platypus?"

 _"Tony, your flight was scheduled to leave an hour and a half ago."_

"That's funny, I thought with it being my plane and all, that it would just wait for me

to get there." Rhodey sighs at his friend.

" _I know there is some separation anxiety…"_

"Excuse you, Elli is three. She can have all the separation anxiety she needs." Tony blows as raspberry at the toddler on his hip causing her to burst into a fit of giggles.

" _Not talking about Elli. Tony just hurry up and get here already."_ A click ends the conversation as Pepper walks up to the father and daughter.

"That was rude."

"He has a point, say your final goodbyes."

"Alright, alright. I love you princess."

"I love you too daddy." Tony passes his daughter off to Pepper before being herded to the town car by Happy.

"Remember bath time is a 7! And no juice after 6!"

"Tony, I keep track of both of your lives. I know the schedule, just get to the airport before the plane leaves."

"Doesn't it kind of defeat the whole purpose of having your own plane if it departs before you arrive?"

***another mini line break***

Before Tony can even exit the town car, reporters are swarming. He definitely hadn't missed this.

"Mr. Stark, where have you been the past three years? Is it true you have become a hermit?"

"Mr. Stark, there has been rumors of a Mrs. Stark causing you to end your playboy lifestyle. Can you confirm this?"

"Mr. Stark is it true that you are terminally ill?"

Tony deflected most questions by repeating the phrase _no comment_ as he made his way through the crowd, but one woman was extremely persistent.

"Mr. Stark! Mr. Stark! You've been called the da Vinci of our time. What do you say to that?"

"Absolutely ridiculous. I don't paint." Well not masterpieces at least. Elli loved to finger paint.

"And what do you say to your other nickname? 'The Merchant of Death'?" The woman was practically in his face now.

"That's not bad," his weapons had caused a lot of death, but they protected the young men and women serving his country so he had little to no guilt, "Let me guess. Berkeley?"

"Brown, actually."

"Well, Ms. Brown, it's an imperfect world, but it's the only one we've got," if this world were perfect, Elli would have never have had to suffer like she did, "I guarantee you, the day weapons are no longer needed to keep the peace, I'll stick to only making prosthetics and baby bottles."

"Rehearse that much?"

"Every night in front of the mirror before bedtime." He had stopped walking now, the other reporters having been left behind when security pushed them back. How she managed to sneak past, he would never know.

"All I want is a serious answer."

"Okay, here's serious. Until it is guaranteed that our children are safe, I'm going to stick to my old man's philosophy, 'Peace means having a bigger stick than the other guy.'"

"That's a great line coming from the guy selling the sticks."

"My father helped defeat the Nazis. He worked on the Manhattan Project. A lot of people, including your professors at Brown, would call that being a hero."

"And a lot of people would also call that war profiteering. You are still making money after you blow people up with those new prosthetics." Tony was ready to hit the bitch.

"Tell me, do you plan to report on the millions we've saved by advancing medical technology or kept from starvation with our intelli-crops? All those breakthroughs,

military funding, honey."

Before she can say another word, Tony turns on his heel and practically sprints toward the plane. God, did he hate the paparazzi. Vultures, that was the only word for them.

"What's wrong with you?" Tony looks up to see Rhodey scowling.

"What?"

"Three hours."

"Elli needed extra kisses and then I got caught doing a piece for Vanity Fair." Tony shrugs his shoulders. Nothing he could do about it now.

"For three hours. For three hours you got me standing here."

"Waiting on you now. Let's go. Come on." The sooner they left and got this demonstration over with, the sooner he could get back and see Elli.

 **Ha, its going to be a bit longer than a week Tony. So this chapter was really long, don't know what got into me. Just finally got into the groove of the story I guess. And a lot of coffee kept me going, lol.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey guys! I'm not going to write out every scene of the Iron Man movie, we have all seen it and I really think it's unnecessary. Again, I want to thank everyone for favoriting and following my story. I would also usually thank my reviewers but for some reason, even though it tells me there are more reviews, I can only see the ones from the earlier chapters. If you reviewed, thank you so much! Hopefully, fanfiction will let me see it at some point, lol.**

 **I do not own any marvel characters or movies. All rights go to Disney and Marvel.**

Tony was trying not to completely spaz out at the moment. Everything was going great, the military loved the missile, the deal was done, and Tony was going to go home 3 days early. But then he had to get blown up. Now he was stuck in a cave, strapped to a car battery in order to stop shrapnel from entering his heart and killing him. Not to mention the whole torture and 'you better build terrorists a fancy new missile or you're getting a bullet to the brain' thing. If he survived this, he was never going to do a favor for Obie ever again.

Hell, he was going to tell Obie to shove it since he was the one that guilt-tripped him to go to Afghanistan in the first place. The man could kiss his ass. And if he got out of there, he was shutting down the weapons department. Whenever he closed his eyes, he kept seeing that soldier drop dead. He had just been a kid and Tony had indirectly killed him; SI was supposed to help protect the American soldiers—not betray them. He would find out who was selling to the terrorists under the table and he would make sure they got what they deserved. He could never live with himself if this happened again. There had to be a better way of helping people. He had to set a better example for Elli.

And Elli. His poor, sweet Elli. She probably thought he had abandoned her. He had to get back—if it weren't for her, he probably would have just let the terrorists kill him. She was the only thing he lived for now.

A sudden shock drives Tony out of his thoughts. This damn battery would need to go first. No way was he going to be able to get anything done with wires hanging out of his chest. He looked up at the man who was imprisoned with him. Fine beads of sweat ran down the man's neck as he helped Tony get the nose off of the missile. Yinsen was his name. He definitely didn't trust the man, but he was grateful toward him for saving his life. Once Tony found what he was looking for, he dropped the metal piece on the ground to inspect his prize more closely.

"That doesn't look like a Jericho missile." Tony barely glances at Yinsen as he begins to fiddle with the device in his hand.

"That's because it's a miniaturized arc reactor. I got a big one powering my factory at home. It should keep the shrapnel out of my heart."

The color of the light the device produced reminded Tony of Elli. He was always a little curious as to why her eyes glowed the same color as the reactor. Before he had left, Jarvis had been helping him analyze a sample of the energy his daughter could control. He wanted to understand it so one day she could understand it as well.

"But what could it generate?"

"If my math is right, and it always is, three gigajoules per second."

"That could run your heart for 50 lifetimes."

"Yeah. Or something big for 15 minutes." This had to work or he would never see his daughter again. Hopefully he didn't fry himself on accident.

*******mini break*******

Huddled at the fire, Yinsen and Tony ate the slop that was passed off as food by their captors. The man was on board with his plan of escape and Tony couldn't be happier about that. It made sneaking around a lot easier.

"You still haven't told me where you're from."

"I'm from a small town called Gulmira. It's actually a nice place."

"Got a family?"

"Yes, and I will see them when I leave here." So they had the same goal, good.

"And you, Stark?"

He paused in his eating, he might not ever get to talk about his daughter with anyone again. And honestly, he doubted Yinsen would run to the press about his secret child if they escaped. He would have better things to worry about. Tony reached into his back pocket to pull out a photo. Pepper had convinced him to carry it on his person despite having a million photos on his phone—which had been lost when he was kidnapped. Somehow the picture had not been discovered or destroyed in the past month. The edges were starting to fray though, and the ink was slightly faded. He handed it to Yinsen, who treated it as though it was priceless. And to Tony—it was.

"That's Elli, she just turned 3." The toddler had messy white hair and the most unusual gold colored eyes. The photo was taken from above, the little girl stretching for the photographer to pick her up. Yinsen looked up to see Tony wearing the fondest smile on his face as he looked at the child in the picture.

"I thought you were unmarried?" Tony snorted at the man.

"So you did know the answer, you were just being polite. No, I am a single father. I adopted her when she was around 2 months old and kept her a secret from the press. Only a select few know of her existence. You are the sixth beside myself. Congratulations."

"But why tell me?"

"I feel like you can keep a secret. And I think that if we are going to get out of this alive, I need to trust you, and Elli is the most trust I can give a person." The man handed the photo back and Tony carefully tucked it back into his pocket.

"I am honored, Mr. Stark."

******line break*******

The burning men made Tony cackle with a murderous glee. These assholes had killed Yinsen. He felt no remorse killing them. It was when missiles started going off like fireworks that Tony knew he had to get out of there. Flying was cool, he could see why Elli had so much fun with it. The crash landing wasn't exactly his favorite thing though.

After wandering through the desert for hours, Tony almost started sobbing when the helicopter spotted him. He definitely shed a tear when Rhodey came to get him—not that he would ever admit it. Despite being rescued, Tony still felt as anxious as when he was stuck in the cave. It was only when his feet touched American soil for the first time in months that he was finally able to relax. He had made it; he was going to see his daughter again.

Thankfully, there were no reporters to swarm him—he had Rhodey to thank for that, the press didn't think he was coming home for another week due to medical issues.

"Happy, let's go see Elli. I think I owe her a whole lot of ice cream." His driver laughed and put the car into drive, eyeing his passenger in the rearview mirror.

"That you do, Sir."

****line break****

Tony snuck in the front door having texted Jarvis to unlock it. Happy informed him it was around 8 A.M., so Elli should be waking up soon. He was going to make her favorite—blueberry pancakes. It would be difficult with one of his arms in a sling, but he would manage.

"Tony?" Pepper walked into the kitchen startled to see the back of a man rummaging through the fridge. He turned around to see Pepper's hands over her mouth, tears streaming down her face.

"Hey, Pep. How's it going?" Pepper only shook her head and went to lean on Tony's chest.

"I thought you were dead. I didn't know what I was going to do. Elli has missed you so much, she has refused to eat ice cream, kept saying she had to wait for you." Tony blinked as Pepper rubbed her eyes and then began lightly pounding on his chest, "You stupid, stupid man. I thought we lost you."

"I'm ok, Pep. It's over."

"Peppa?" Both adults snapped their heads to see a sleepy Elli walking towards the kitchen, rubbing her eyes as treaded forward. The toddler stopped when she removed her hands from her eyes, her face blank as father and daughter stared each other down.

"Daddy?" Tony was getting down on his knees as Elli whispered his name.

"Yeah, munchkin. It's me." A pitiful sob escaped the toddler as she launched herself into her daddy's chest, causing both of them to fall to the ground.

"Daddy… _hic…_ daddy… _hic…_ daddy I missed you. I missed you so much," Elli's face was buried in her daddy's neck, soothing circles being rubbed on her back as Tony locked her in a tight embrace.

"I know baby girl. I missed you too," Tony kissed his daughter's head and breathed in her favorite strawberry shampoo, he was finally home. Elli trembled in his arms as another sob was muffled into his shirt, "I'm so sorry I kept you waiting so long."

 **There isn't much Elli-Tony interaction in this chapter which was kind of sad, but they're reunited so next chapter will be more interesting! Sorry it is a little shorter than the previous chapters, it felt a little awkward to keep going so the next chapter will most likely be very long!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Alright another chapter done! Yes! Once again, I would like to thank all of my new and old followers and favoritees (sounds better than favoriters or people who have favorited, lol). And fanfiction decided I can see my reviews once again so thank you, Sam0728, arthemys, and Teamleo316 for reviewing. The feedback is always welcome and much appreciated! This chapter finishes up the events of Iron Man. I hope you guys like it!**

 **I do not own any or Marvel's characters or movies. All rights go to Disney and Marvel.**

 _"-hic…daddy I missed you. I missed you so much."_

"Would you stop watching that?"

Pepper jumped at Tony's voice behind her, she had been sitting in one of the stools at the kitchen counter waiting for Elli to recover from the sugar crash she had had an hour or so before. The little girl was sprawled on the couch, practically comatose from all the excitement and ice cream of the past few days. After their touching reunion (which Jarvis had saved and sent to her and Rhodey despite Tony's objections), the father-daughter pair had spent every minute together, enjoying a Disney movie marathon and mint chocolate chip ice cream for a week until the day the press believed Tony to be returning.

Knowing he couldn't ignore the world forever, he had Pepper call a press conference where he dropped the (figurative) bomb that he would no longer be making (literal) bombs—or guns, or missiles, or any other type of artillery and/or military based weapon. Obie hadn't been very happy with him, but the billionaire could live with that. It amazed Tony that even when the man was supposed to be mad at him—he could still be thinking about the money they could make with the arc reactor stuck in Tony's chest.

"What are you talking about? I wasn't watching anything."

The woman hid her phone very poorly behind her back. She couldn't help it—it was just too cute! And even though Tony was not a soldier, the video gave her the same heartwarming feeling as the YouTube soldier reunion videos she was currently addicted to. If only Elli wasn't a secret, it could have had so many views if she was able to post it.

"Right," Tony let it go, it wasn't what he came up here for, "Pepper, how big are your hands?"

"What?"

"Let's see them," Tony grabs one of Pepper's wrists and inspects her hand before dragging her towards the stairs leading down to the lab, "Oh, wow. They are small. Very petite, indeed. I just need your help for a sec."

*****breakkkk*******

"You okay?" Pepper had a hand on her chest, she felt like she was going to faint. He felt kind of bad, but at the same time he felt a lot better without a faulty reactor in his chest.

"Don't ever, ever, ever, ever ask me to do anything like that ever again."

"I could get Elli to do it, but she is a little young don't you think?" Pepper only glared at the man, she didn't get paid enough for this.

"Daddy? Peppa?" Jarvis opens the door to the lab for the toddler, she was always allowed in when it was safe for tots.

"Over here, sweetie. How was your nap?" The little girl climbs into her daddy's lap and pushes her face into his chest in response to his question.

"Head and tummy huwts," Tony laughs as he tries to console his daughter.

"I think she is experiencing her first hangover." Pepper smacks him lightly on the arm.

"What's a hangova?" Pepper smacks him again.

"Nothing important munchkin." Elii scrunches up her face in annoyance at her daddy but decides to let it go when she spots the reactor in her daddy's chest.

"What's this?" She traces the edges of the reactor causing Tony to shiver slightly. The light flickers a greeting at her and she giggles in reply.

"it's called an arc reactor. It is helping me from getting sick." Sick was the best way to explain it to a three-year-old that had no concept of death. Elli brings her face closer to the light.

"Awc weacta?" Tony snorts as he nods, they really needed to work on her r's.

A flickering on the table behind her daddy catches Elli's attention. Another light? Sliding off her daddy's lap, she switches her bracelet to its off mode so she can make herself float and sit on the metal table. Tony and Pepper watch her inspect the device.

"Will that be all Mr. Stark?" Pepper had a ton of paper work to back at SI.

"That'll be all, Ms. Potts." Kissing the toddler goodbye and giving Tony a small smile, Pepper goes up the stairs leaving the two alone.

"Awc weacta?" Elli held up the device in question.

"Yup. That's my old one, this one is more reliable." Tony taps the metal piece in his chest. Nodding, Elli goes back to inspecting the light. It flickered a greeting, much slower than the arc reactor in her daddy's chest. Elli shook her head; this wouldn't do at all. Tony got up from his seat and walked over to his daughter.

"Whatcha up to, munchkin?" Tony cocked his head to look at the failing arc reactor just at Elli's hand lit up with blue energy. His eyes widened as she pushed the blue light into the old reactor, causing a wave of energy to throw him back into the wall.

Groaning, Tony look up to see the lab practically destroyed. Papers were blown everywhere, tables overturned, and Dummy was racing around the lab in a panic.

"Pewfect," his daughter was still in the same spot on the table, the arc reactor in her hand lighting up her face—its glow much brighter than before. Tony could only stare slack jawed as a lamp crashed to the floor and Elli looked at him with a proud grin on her face.

***break break break***

Since the incident, Pepper had taken the old reactor to be engraved. After having Jarvis analyze the device, it was revealed that the palladium content level had dropped and been replaced by a foreign element. When her daddy questioned her, Elli just said that the light was sad, so she made it happy. Rather than dwelling on it, Tony had just moved on and added the event to the list of his daughter's weirdness that he hoped to one day understand.

"What colors should we have Jarvis paint it? I like gold, personally."

They had been working on the suit for weeks, with only a few hiccups. Making the arms and legs were a walk in the park—he had plenty of practice making Elli's. It was the flight repulsion system that had had him stuck for so long. The first few flight tests hadn't gone as well as he hoped. Elli had got a kick out of it though, she couldn't stop laughing for an hour when he smacked the wall. Surprisingly, Elli had been extremely helpful after that. It had been kind of weird being taught by a toddler how to fly.

"I like red!" The little girl wiggled the bright red painted toenails she was sporting that week. It had become a tradition that every time Elli decided a new favorite color, Pepper would repaint her prosthetic toe nails. When she had finally mastered her r's, everything that started with an 'r' instantly became her favorite. Ranch was her new favorite food, if that made any sense.

"Red it is then."

Tony grinned at his daughter as Jarvis changed the color of the suit on the screen. He turned it so she could see from the beanbag she was sitting on in the corner of the garage. Since Jarvis was doing all the building, her daddy had said Deedee could come down too. The dog was currently trying to retrieve a tennis ball from under one of her daddy's convertibles that hadn't been destroyed the day before.

"No, not red." Elli had a serious thinking face on that caused Tony to raise his eyebrows at his daughter.

"Change your mind?"

"Red and gold!" Jarvis changed the colors on the screen causing both Elli and Tony to nod in approval, Tony whistling low in appreciation.

"You've got style munchkin."

*****break*******

"Breathe." Tony choked on air as he tried desperately to move, "Easy, easy. You remember this one, right?"

Tony wanted to roar at Obadiah. What the fuck did he think he was doing? He knew the man was the one selling the weapons under the table, but he never thought he would stoop this low.

"It's a shame the government didn't approve it. There's so many applications for causing short-term paralysis."

Tony's eyes flickered back and forth frantically. Where was Elli? God, he hoped she stayed in her bed, she had been having nightmares lately.

"Tony," Obadiah dragged him back out of his thoughts, "When I ordered the hit on you, I worried that I was killing the golden goose."

If Tony could move right now, he would spit in the man's face. He would orphan his daughter just to take control of the company?

"But, you see, it was just fate that you survived that," the man brought out a device that looked like some type of torture device, "You had one last golden egg to give."

Tony convulsed as pain erupted from his chest as Obadiah ripped the reactor out.

"Do you really think that just because you have an idea, it belongs to you? Your father, he helped give us the atomic bomb. Now, what kind of world would it be today if he was as selfish as you?"

A glare was Obadiah's only reply. Shrugging the man turned his attention to the blue glowing device in his hands.

"Oh, it's beautiful. Tony, this is your Ninth Symphony. What a masterpiece. Look at that," pushing the stolen reactor into his face, Obadiah grinned as Tony refused to look at it, "This is your legacy. A new generation of weapon with this at its heart. Weapons that will help steer the world back on course, put the balance of power in our hands. The right hands."

Obadiah sighed as he ended his monologue, not noticing Tony's fingers beginning to twitch.

"I wish you could've seen my prototype. It's not as...Well, not as conservative as yours," Obadiah laughed to himself before looking back at Tony, "Too bad you had to involve Pepper in this. I would have preferred that she lived."

Obadiah got up and began to walk away leaving a frantic Tony on the couch.

"Oh, and don't worry about Elli. I'll take good care of her." Tony was internally screaming as he looked to see Obadiah carrying his unconscious daughter away.

****breakkkkk****

Elli woke up in a strange building with no one around to tell her what was going on. She was about to call Jarvis when she remembered her daddy saying Jarvis only lived in the house. Getting up, Elli began to look around until she heard crashing and loud noises. Going to investigate, Elli looked up to see a sign with an arrow pointing up some stairs and the word roof written underneath it. After reaching the top of the stairs, Elli used her powers to push the door open.

"Daddy?"

A man she did not know and Pepper were standing over the suit she and her daddy had made. Seeing tufts of brown hair, Elli began to run towards the body only to be scooped up Pepper.

"Daddy?" The toddler looked over the red head's shoulder. Why wasn't her daddy responding? "Daddy wake up. Daddy!"

"Elli, baby. Your daddy isn't going to wake up." Elli turned at Pepper's soft, quivering voice. Tears were flowing out of the older woman's eyes.

"No! Daddy! Daddy," Elli pushed out of Pepper's arms with a force her mechanical limbs allowed her to have, "daddy wake up."

Agent Coulson's widened a fraction as he looked at the white haired toddler with golden eyes hang on Stark's unmoving body. Stark had a daughter? Why didn't they know about this? How had the girl even gotten here?

"Elli, you have to stop. He isn't going to wake up." Ms. Potts tried to pull the girl away, but the girl struggled against her.

"NO!"

Coulson couldn't stop the gasp that escaped his mouth as the little girl burst with a blue glow causing Ms. Potts to drop the child's arm. He watched as her features dissolved into what looked to be the same blue energy that came from Stark's reactor. It had only taken a few seconds but the change was drastic. The being that stood before him now was toddler shaped, but flickered with an ethereal glow. Her hair flowed around her head in the form of white flames and her eyes shined a more intense electric blue. When she began reaching for the arc reactor in Stark's chest, Coulson went for his gun in alarm but stopped when Ms. Potts put a hand on his wrist to stop him.

The woman shook her head at the agent before turning back to watch as Elli pushed some of her energy into the reactor. A blue glow extended over Tony's body, making cuts and bruises disappear before the energy disappeared from both the father and daughter. A normal toddler now sat on Iron Man's chest as his eyes began to flicker open.

"Daddy!" The little girl threw her arms around her daddy—she knew he would wake up!

"Elli?"

Tony felt relief flow through him as he hugged the toddler back. He wasn't sure how she got here, but he was glad that he didn't have to worry about finding her anymore. Tony looked around to see he was still on the roof, Pepper and that government agent staring at him with their mouths opened.

"What? Is there something on my face?"

*******break break break**********

Tony looked back stage to see his daughter watching him from Coulson's arms. He refused to let her leave his sight and so the little girl was wearing her park get-up of a beanie and sunglasses. The man had grown fond of her in the past few days, but Tony was hardly surprised, Elli stole the heart of everyone she met. He smiled as she waved and then turned to look down at the cards the agent had given him.

"The truth is," Tony felt his arc reactor pulse suddenly and he remembered the words Pepper had had engraved, _Proof that Tony Stark has a Heart_. He had found it ironic that Elli's energy was what was powering the reactor now, it made the statement somewhat true, because Elli was his everything. She was his heart. Tony looked up at the cameras and reporters with a smirk on his face, "I am Iron Man."

 **So Elli saved the day. YAY ELLI! The whole Elli bursting into energy is a new thing in case anyone is wondering. It is different than when she just glows. The energy becomes her body in a way. Anyways, the main story is supposed to be taking place after the events of the Avengers but I just can't seem to get there, lol. I'm still deciding if I am doing to add a pairing—I'm definitely open to suggestions and I might put a poll on my profile eventually if I can't decide.**

 **Before I post this, here is a fun little tidbit, Eleanor means shining light. It seemed very fancy for a toddler though, which is why her nickname is Elli! I love double meanings with character names :D**

 **Till next time!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Hey guys! My email blew up with all the favorites, followings, and reviewers. It was awesome! Thank you, guests, Sam0728, Madgirl014, sbrock777, arthemys, seaweedbrainxx, badkitty, and for reviewing. As always, your words of encouragement made me smile :D I've decided to skim over Iron Man 2 for now, I might post a side story later but for now I will just touch on what happened in the next few chapters. Pairings are still undecided but Bucky was mentioned in a review, so he'll be added to the list of possibilities.**

 **I do not own any Marvel movies or characters. All rights go to Disney and marvel.**

 ******weeeeeee*******

The Iron Man suit shot out of the Atlantic and headed towards the newly completed Stark tower. The move to New York was inevitable after Obadiah's death. Even after appointing Pepper as CEO, the constant 2-3 day trips for board meetings were irritating to say the least. It was just easier to move in the end, rather than be away from his daughter constantly.

"Sir, Agent Coulson of SHIELD is on the line."

 **"** I'm not in. I'm actually out," they were going to celebrate the completion of reactor powering the tower, Tony didn't have time for SHIELD's pestering today.

 **"** Sir, I'm afraid he's insisting," landing on the balcony outside of the penthouse, Tony smiled and waved at Elli who was currently plastered against the window waiting for him to get back.

Ever since the palladium poisoning the year before, she had taken it upon herself to watch him like a hawk. At even the smallest sign of his health failing, Elli was ready to call Dr. Clemmons. He had sneezed three times in a row this morning and she had gone into what Pepper calls Elli's _doctor mode._ The P.A. turned CEO had been sure to take pictures to send to Rhodey later. Tony had been wrapped in multiple blankets and covered in various stuffed animals with a pink knit hat shoved onto his head as well as a fake thermometer hanging out of his mouth. A tray sat on the coffee table holding orange juice as well as a bowl of chicken noodle soup that Jarvis had heated in the microwave for the now five-year-old. The whole scene had made Pepper snicker but Tony was fine with playing patient if it made his daughter feel better. He still felt guilty for letting her find him at his lowest point in his lab last year. She had refused to sleep alone for a month after finding him half-dead on the floor.

 **"** Close the line Jarvis. I got a date with a little lady," the suit disassembled as Tony strolled inside.

 **"** Levels are holding steady... I think," Pepper was at the monitor having been waiting with Elli while Tony did the finishing touches at the bottom of the ocean.

"Of course they are," Tony scooped up his daughter and blew a raspberry on her tummy causing her to squeal and attempt to wiggle out of his grasp, "I was directly involved. Which brings me to my next question: how does it feel to be a genius?"

 **"** Well, ha, I really wouldn't know now, would I?"

 **"** What do you mean? All this came from you." Tony followed Pepper to the kitchen to where she had previously left her glass of champagne.

"No. All this came from that," the red head gestured to the glowing circle coming from Tony's chest, "and the living super battery hanging off your neck."

Looking down at his toddler, Tony chuckled as she hung onto him like a monkey, refusing to let go despite him no longer supporting her weight. For the past two years, Tony had been studying the energy his daughter produced and was able to slow down the palladium poisoning by using the arc reactor she had altered. The extra time had given him just enough time to create a new element to power the reactor as well as save his life. The large reactor powering the tower at the bottom of ocean used Starkonium and had just a touch of Elli's energy.

"Give yourself some credit, please. Stark Tower is your baby. Give yourself... twelve percent of

the credit," Elli laughed at Pepper's expression, her daddy was in trouble.

 **"** Twelve percent?"

"An argument can be made for fifteen," Tony set Elli on the counter and went to the fridge to pour some chocolate milk in a sippy cup for her and the same in a wine glass for him. He had to keep it classy—it was a celebration after all.

 **"** Twelve percent? For my baby?"

 **"** Well, I did do all the heavy lifting. Literally, I lifted the heavy things. And sorry, but the security snafu? That was on you," Pepper raised her eyebrows at the man as he took a long sip from his glass, pinky up causing Elli to giggle and imitate with her Tinkerbelle cup.

"Oooooh."

 **"** My private elevator..."

 **"** You mean OUR elevator?" It had been decided that Pepper would live on the floor below, it made business easier and she didn't mind living right below her best friend and her goddaughter.

 **"**...was teeming with sweaty workmen. I'm going to pay for that comment about percentages in some subtle way later, aren't I?"

"Not gonna be that subtle," finishing her champagne, Pepper pours herself another glass.

 **"** I'll tell you what. Next building's gonna say 'Potts' on the tower."

 **"** On the lease."

 **"** Deal."

 **"** Sir, the telephone. I'm afraid my protocols are being overwritten."

 **"** Stark, we need to talk." Tony picks up his phone and looks into it at Coulson, scowling at the interruption.

 **"** You have reached the life model decoy of Tony Stark, please leave a message."

"AGENT PHIL!" Elli levitates up to peak over her daddy's shoulders at the agent. Tony's scowl grew at his daughter's enthusiasm; she had developed a tiny crush on the man last May. It was cute according to Pepper, and normal for children her age, but Tony was not happy about it at all. The woman laughed at him causing him to stick his tongue out at her, he definitely was not jealous.

"Hello, Elli," the man grinned at Stark's daughter, before turning his attention back to her father, "Stark, this is urgent."

"Then leave it urgently," as Tony goes to hang up on the agent, the elevator door opens causing Elli to squeal in delight and run over to the man.

 **"** Security breach," Tony turns to Pepper with an accusatory glance, "That's on you."

 **"** Mr. Stark," Elli is riding on the man's shoulders causing Tony to mutter under his breath about sneaky agents using his daughter against him.

"Phil! Come in." Pepper walked to stand next to Tony.

 **"** Phil? Uh, his first name is Agent," he was pretty sure Elli believed him when he told her that.

 **"** We're celebrating," Elli informed the man.

"Which is why he can't stay," his daughter pouted at him, causing the genius to curse the agent all the more in his head.

"We need you to look this over," a file with top secret stamped across it appeared from inside Coulson's suit, "Soon as possible."

"I don't like being handed things," the only people who could hand him things were Pepper, Rhodey, Elli, and Dummy.

"That's alright, `cause I love to be handed things. So, let's trade," She passes her glass of champagne to Coulson and takes the file from him, before stealing Tony's chocolate milk and pushing the file into his hands, "Thank you."

"Official consulting hours are between eight and five every other Thursday," Tony opens the file as Pepper sips the chocolate milk resulting in a small chocolate mustache on her upper lip before making a face at Elli. The little girl giggles from behind Coulson's head and reaches to trade chocolate milks so she can do the same.

 **"** This isn't a consultation."

 **"** Is this about The Avengers?" Elli stretches her neck to look down at Phil.

"Which she...and I know nothing about," Pepper takes the five-year-old down from the agent's shoulders so she can wipe her face with a napkin.

"The Avengers Initiative was scrapped, I thought. And I didn't even qualify."

 **"** I didn't know that either." Pepper rinsed out their glasses before handing them to Elli who put them carefully in the dishwasher.

"Yeah, apparently I'm volatile, self-obsessed, don't play well with others," Elli watches as a big green man smashes a car in the video her daddy is watching.

 **"** That I did know."

"Yes, well your file isn't very accurate due to Fury agreeing to keep Elli and all things related to her out of our servers, but this isn't about personality profiles anymore, Stark."

 **"** Whatever. Miss Potts, got a minute?"

Pepper goes to speak to Tony in private as Elli drags Coulson over to look at her newest drawing hanging on the fridge.

 **"** You know, I thought we were having a moment. Me, you, and Elli."

"I was having twelve percent of a moment," Tony rolls his eyes as Pepper glances at the agent, "This seems serious, Phil's pretty shaken."

"I know. Will you be able to watch Elli for a few days if I need you to?"

 **"** I'm going to take the jet to D.C. tonight, remember?"

"You could bring Elli with? Girls' weekend, that's a thing right?" Tony is watching the video of Captain America play as he and Pepper look at his file move across the screen. Nodding, Pepper is already texting Happy to inform him he will be on babysitting duty while she attended a few meetings. After they could go to the Smithsonian, Elli loved museums.

"You've got homework. You've got a lot of homework," Pepper glances as more and more files and pictures fly across the server.

"That I do," turning away from the monitor, Tony scoops Elli up as she is showing her favorite doll to the agent, "alright, munchkin. Go with Aunty Pepper to pack some clothes. You guys are going to have a girls' weekend while daddy gets some work done."

"Girls' weekend?" Elli didn't like the idea of leaving her daddy alone to work. He tended to forget to eat.

"Yup," Pepper grabbed the Captain America doll that Elli was previously showing Phil, "We are going to go to D.C. And you know what's there? The Captain America exhibit!"

Elli's eyes widened before screaming and running to her room to get ready, Pepper following behind at a slower pace. The girl was as in love with Captain America as Phil was. It was probably what had drawn her to him in the first place. They had bonded over Tony's dad's collection of memorabilia and watched the wars films while decked out in Captain America gear every other Tuesday. Tony took pictures to use as black mail against the agent later.

"What do you think she would do if she knew you were meeting him?" Tony looked back at Phil, the man was chuckling at the girl's antics.

"Probably follow behind me all the way to the helicarrier, she can keep up with Mark 6 easily when she concentrates." Phil snorted, he didn't doubt that for a second.

Pepper came back with Elli a few minutes later with her beanie and sunglasses on and ready. A Captain America backpack had the good Captain himself sticking out of one of the pockets and a Frozen themed duffle hung off of her side.

"Got your toothbrush?"

"Yep."

"Motor oil?"

"Yes."

"Extra undies?"

"Yes daddy! I gots everything!"

"It's _I have everything_ sweetie," Tony kissed his daughter's head before Pepper began to steer her towards the door, Coulson following behind, "I love you!"

"Love you too daddy." Tony waited until the elevator doors shut before turning to look at the monitor. He had a bad feeling about this.

***break***

 **Usually I write a lot more scenes in a chapter but I got carried away with this one, haha. About Elli's crush, it is purely innocent and Phil finds it cute and plays along because he is a great guy. My cousin's daughter has this huge crush on my older brother which is just the most adorable thing ever. It made me think of the possibility of Elli having a crush on Phil and seeing Tony being a jealous daddy made me laugh. Anyways, due to staying up late and getting up early, I'm going to attempt to sleep before 4 and wait to write the next few scenes of The Avengers. I'm supposed to have the day off tomorrow so I am hoping to write a lot while sitting in the sunshine.**

 **Hope you all enjoyed!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Hello again! Thanks for all the favorites and follows! I powered through this chapter and I'm actually very happy with it. It's pretty long so I apologize ahead of time for all the mistakes that are probably all over. A special thanks to those who reviewed, arthemys, DC-Mythology-Lover, Dame-Of-The-Living-Dead, and Teamleo316, you guys are all awesome. I love getting feedback :D**

 **I do not own any Marvel characters or movies. All rights go to Disney and Marvel.**

 *****here we goooo*****

Tony rolled his neck and rubbed a sore shoulder, he probably shouldn't have made the crack about Thor's cape being a drape—but he couldn't help it. Elli had recently been introduced to plays and Shakespeare was fresh in his mind. Her favorite was _Twelfth Night._ She had gone as Viola for Halloween last year.

A wince accompanied a gasp of pain as he rolled his shoulder. It had been a pretty epic scuffle. He would have to show his daughter the surveillance Jarvis got from the suit, seeing Captain America challenge a Norse God would make her day. Speaking of the Capsicle, he would have to figure out how to get him to meet Elli. Maybe he could pass her off as one of his worker's kids—not that he didn't trust the man to keep a secret…well that was a lie. It was kind of impossible to like much less trust the man that indirectly ruined his childhood. He would try to not hold it against the man, it wasn't exactly his fault and he couldn't put his personal feeling in the way of Elli meeting her idol.

"Need some ice?" Coulson came up behind him with an eyebrow raised, while Phil teased the genius about his daughter's crush, the two had become good friends over the past two years.

"Nah, it isn't that bad. Mostly my pride is bruised." The agent snorted, he had watched the video before debriefing with Fury. Thor had thrown the billionaire like a rag doll a few times.

"You'll be fine." Tony nodded as they continued to where the other's were gathered.

"So," Coulson glanced at Tony who saw wearing a seductive grin on his face, "you ever gonna ask Pepper out?"

"I don't think Elli would appreciate it," a dusting of pink across his cheek bones was the only hint at Coulson's feelings for the CEO.

"She'll be fine. Besides I think she slowly moving on from you. She keeps mentioning some kid named Peter at her school," for the past two months, Elli had been attending Midtown Elementary as a third grader having skipped kindergarten, first, and second. She had tested higher than that, but Pepper had insisted she stay somewhat near her age group. Tony had been beaming with pride after she had been tested—even if they weren't blood related, she was a Stark.

They had all thought she would have to be homeschooled until she was old enough to wear contacts, but Tony was able to use science to fix all of their problems. And Pepper doubted his abilities. For a week, Tony tinkered with holographic cloaking technology that he had originally come up with for SHEILD. After upgrading her bracelet and mechanical limbs to house the right parts, they now had the same cloaking ability that SHEILD spies used in the field. When in use, she looked a lot like him actually, dark brown hair and chocolate eyes. The disguise allowed Elli to be enrolled in a local elementary with Happy acting as her "father" and Tony using his own version of the cloaking device to pose as her pale blonde Uncle at family events.

"Ouch. I'm a little hurt," Tony snorts as the man smirks just the tiniest bit, "you're surprisingly calm about it."

"Pepper told me I can't get him transferred."

"Ah."

The two men were outside the door now, just in time to hear Banner speak.

"Iridium, what did they need the Iridium for?"

"It's a stabilizing agent," Tony looked back at Coulson, not wanting to drop the whole _Ask Pepper out already, you chicken-shit_ thing so quickly, "She has a meeting next week in Hong Kong, I'll fly you there. Keep the love alive," Coulson only stares blankly at him but Tony can tell he is considering it before turning back to the rest of the room.

"Means the portal won't collapse on itself, like it did at SHIELD," Tony walks towards the table but pauses next to Thor, patting his bicep so he can check to see if they are real, "No hard feelings, Point Break. You've got a mean swing. Also, it means the portal can open as wide, and stay open as long, as Loki wants."

Continuing to the railing, Tony looks over the crew deck before blinking in irritation.

"Uh, raise the mid-mast, ship the top sails. That man is playing GALAGA! Thought we wouldn't notice. But we did," served the asshole right, who plays a videogame when they are supposed to be working to stop a worldwide crisis? Thinking of his favorite pirate, Tony covers one of his eyes with a hand, "How does Fury do this?"

 **"** He turns," a woman Tony recognizes as Maria Hill glares daggers at him before walking briskly away. Taking the opportunity, Tony sticks a hacking bug to the bottom of the monitor. While the man no doubt had a level of fondness for Elli (and, although he would die before he admitted it, Tony himself), the billionaire knew not to count on Fury for telling them the full story. He would have to find out for himself.

 **"** Well, that sounds exhausting. The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. Only major component he still needs is a power source. A high energy density, something to kick start the cube."

 **"** When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?"

"Last night," Tony rolls his eyes at the woman, she barely tolerated the man and constantly questioned his inputs on everything. He found her whole attitude slightly unprofessional—not that he could really talk, "The packet, Selvig's notes, the Extraction Theory papers. Am I the only one who did the reading?"

 **"** Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?"

Sneaking a glance at Captain America, Tony internally groans at the look of disapproval the man is giving him from his seat at the table. He just knew that America's Golden Boy was going to be a Royal stick in the mud. If he wanted the man to meet Elli, he would actually have to try to behave. Boring.

 **"** He's got to heat the cube to a hundred and twenty million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier," the scientist known as Bruce Banner answered for him. It took all of Tony's self-control to not rush the man with question about his work. It had some aspects that could run parallel with Elli's energy so he had read all of his published works pretty recently. Needless to say, he was a big fan.

 **"** Unless, Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect."

 **"** Well, if he could do that he could achieve Heavy Ion Fusion at any reactor on the planet."

 **"** Finally," Tony throws his hands up in the air before going to shake Bruce's hand, "someone who speaks English."

 **"** Is that what just happened?"

 **"** It's good to meet you, Dr. Banner," he tries not to babble but he can't help himself, "You're work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster."

 **"** Thanks," the man's tone is flat, but his smile reaches his eyes.

 **"** Dr. Banner is only here to track the cube. I was hoping you might join him," Fury stood on the side of the table opposite Tony.

 **"** Let's start with that stick of his. It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon."

 **"** I don't know about that, but it is powered by the cube," Fury addresses the Captain before looking at Tony and Bruce, "And I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys."

 **"** Monkeys? I do not understand," Tony almost jumps at Thor's voice, he had forgotten the God of flowing golden hair was standing behind him.

 **"** I do! I understood that reference," Tony rolls his eyes but has to admit that Cap looking so proud of himself is kind of cute.

 **"** Shall we play, doctor?"

 **"** Let's play some," the two scientists stroll out, but stop as Fury calls out to Tony.

"And Stark, I want those files I asked for already," confused for a second, Tony makes a face before realization dawns on him and he begins tapping on his phone. He had forgotten to send out Elli's school pictures. After sending the "files," Tony practically sprints to the lab with Bruce struggling to keep up. Midtown Elementary was performing the musical _Annie_ this Friday. Elli had been cast as Sandy—the dog. She had followed after Deedee on all fours, practicing her lines and becoming one with the dog. When Tony found out that parents were responsible for costumes, they had spent all of last week making the best dog costume the world had ever seen, no way in Hell was he going to miss it.

**break break**

 **"** That's the guy my dad never shut up about? Wondering if they shouldn't have kept him on ice," yeah no, not meeting Elli. The guy was a total jerk. What was the saying? _Don't meet you heroes?_ Definitely applied here.

 **"** The guy's not wrong about Loki. He does have the jump on us."

 **"** What he's got is an ACME dynamite kit," Walking over to look at what the man was working on, Tony offered a blueberry to the Doctor, he had started carrying snacks with him when working as a result of his daughter ignoring him for a day the last time he passed out in the lab, "It's gonna blow up in his face, and I'm gonna be there when it does."

 **"** And I'll read all about it," taking a handful, Bruce pops a few blueberries in his mouth.

 **"** Uh-huh," Tony pauses as he devours a few more fruits, "Or you'll be suiting up like the rest of us."

 **"** Ah, see. I don't get a suit of armor. I'm exposed, like a nerve. It's a nightmare," Tony could practically see the man's insecurities spilling out of him. If Elli was here she would probably do all she could to force the man out of his shell. She had a thing for adopting shy people. For the munchkin's honor he had to at least try to make the man open up a little more.

"You know, I've got a cluster of shrapnel, trying every second to crawl its way into my heart," he taps the arc reactor shining through his shirt causing a little ping to sound, "This stops it. This little circle of light. It's part of me now, not just armor. It's a... terrible privilege."

 **"** But you can control it," the man didn't seem very impressed.

"Because I learned how," if he hadn't he wouldn't

 **"** It's different," Bruce hides behind the computer screen before Tony moves it out of the way.

 **"** Hey, I've read all about your accident. That much gamma exposure should have killed you," the man was kind of like Elli, both were impossibilities.

 **"** So you're saying that the Hulk... the other guy... saved my life?"

Tony only hums an affirmative before turning back to his computer.

"That's nice. It's a nice sentiment," Bruce shakes his head at the idea, "Saved it for what?"

 **"** I guess we'll find out."

 **"** You might not like that," Bruce knew the man would turn away eventually—everyone did.

 **"** You just might," Tony truly believed that Bruce feared the Hulk, feared himself, only because he didn't understand himself, didn't know himself. He hoped the man one day would.

****break break break****

"Big man in a suit of armor. Take that off, what are you?"

Tony glared at his childhood hero, the man had had something against him since the minute he stepped on this damn ship. Even when he was right about Fury hiding something, the man still had to question and belittle Tony. The genius felt the sarcasm he usually held for pesky reporters creep up his throat.

 **"** Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist," well three out of the four things on that list were still correct.

 **"** I know guys with none of that worth ten of you. Yeah, I've seen the footage," the man laughs, actually fucking laughs in Tony's face before continuing to tear the billionaire apart, "The only thing you really fight for is yourself. You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you."

 **"** I think I would just cut the wire," this man knew nothing about him. He knew nothing of what he has been through, what he had had to give up. The guilt he felt twice a year when Elli was resized for her prosthetics, this man had no clue.

 **"** Always a way out... You know, you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero," Steve sneered at Howard's son. How had his friend raised such a brat?

 **"** A hero? Like you? You're a lab rat, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle," he knew he wasn't perfect, but he was trying. He was trying to be the hero his daughter thought him to be.

******break break******

"Was he married?"

 **"** No, but he had someone he cared for," Tony hung his head in shame. How was he going to tell Elli and Pepper?

"I'm sorry. He seemed like a good man," Steve wanted to comfort the man, despite their earlier dispute.

 **"** He was an idiot," the man had died before he even got the chance to tell Pepper how he felt about her.

 **"** Why? For believing?"

 **"** For taking on Loki alone," Tony clenched his fists. While Coulson had been a spy—and a really good one at that—he was no match for a God.

 **"** He was doing his job," the Captain became slightly irritated at the genius's behavior.

"He was out of his league. He should have waited. He should have..."

"Sometimes there isn't a way out, Tony," of course the man was lecturing him right now. He didn't need this.

 **"** Right," Tony leaves the cell, Steve following close behind, "How did that work for him?"

 **"** Is this the first time you've lost a soldier?"

 **"** WE ARE NOT SOLDIERS!"

Steve can only look at Tony before sighing.

"Look, it is obvious we don't get along. But, right now we've got to put aside our differences and get this done. Now Loki needs a power source, if we can put together a list..."

 **"** He made it personal," Coulson's dried blood on the wall stares Tony down.

 **"** That's not the point," Steve shakes his head.

 **"** That is the point. That's Loki's point. He hit us all right where we live. Why?"

 **"** To tear us apart," Tony nods in approval.

"He had to conquer his greed, but he knows he has to take us out to win, right? That's what he wants. He wants to beat us and he wants to be seen doing it. He wants an audience," his mind was racing, he had to figure this out.

 **"** Right, I caught his act at Stuttengard."

 **"** Yeah. That's just a preview, this is opening night. Loki's a full-tilt diva. He wants flowers, he wants parades, he wants a monument built in the skies with his name plastered..."

Oh, shit. His phone was ringing before he even realized he had hit dial. No answer.

 **"** Sonofabitch!" Tony could only hope that Pepper and Elli hadn't gotten home yet.

***breakkkk***

"Who're you?"

Loki whips around to see a small girl standing on the other side of the balcony. He hadn't even sensed her presence. She had unruly dark brown hair and large chocolate colored eyes. The spitting image of Stark. He thought back to the information Barton had given him—he had never mentioned the billionaire having a child.

"Now, I believe the right question, my dear, is who are you?"

Elli scrunched her nose, she had asked first. She hated when people didn't answer her questions. It was rude.

"I don't think I can tell you that," her daddy always told her not to talk to strangers. This man was on their balcony though, maybe he was waiting for daddy.

"Oh?" He certainly hadn't expected her to say that. Loki raises his eyebrows at the girl while he starts to stalk toward her, "And why would that be?"

"Daddy might not want you here," Elli was struggling to look up at the man who was towering over her. A shiver ran down her back when the man began to laugh.

"Oh, I assure you my dear, I am most definitely where I am supposed to be," he studies the girl now that he is closer.

His eyes see through the disguise casted by Stark's technology causing his interest to grow even more. A frightened yelp escapes the child as he grabs one of her wrists and lifts her up to eye level. Blinking, Loki is astounded as his magic reveals yet another secret the girl is holding. He stills her thrashing by gripping her chin tightly.

"Well aren't you just the oddity. I thought your kind was extinct," to think he would encounter one, and on Midgard of all places. He doubted she even knew what she is.

"Let me go!" The girl squirmed in his tight grip, tears threatening to spill. She couldn't reach her bracelet to release her powers.

"Or what?" Loki walks back inside, not bothering to release the child who had started kicking him.

"Or my daddy will kick your ass!" Pepper had said never to repeat that word but her daddy had told her it was meant for only the meanest people. And this guy was really, really mean.

"I would like to see him try," Loki chuckles darkly and drops the girl on her butt. Elli rubs her bottom, trying not to cry as she glares up at the dark haired man.

A thump outside causes both of them to look toward the balcony where her daddy had just landed. Elli takes the chance to run behind the bar and Loki lets her. He could get her later, anyways.

Tony swears to himself when he spots Elli inside. Where the hell was Pepper? He doesn't want to take off the suit—not with Elli in there, but he need to switch it out if he was going to fight Loki. The Mack VI was in no shape to confront a God.

"Please tell me you're going to appeal to my humanity," Loki grinned as the man presented himself without any protection.

 **"** Uh...actually, I'm planning to threaten you," looking for Elli, Tony spotted her peaking out from behind the bar. That was his girl.

 **"** You should have left your armor on for that."

 **"** Yeah, it's seen a bit of mileage. You've got the blue stick of destiny," Tony wanders toward the bar, the Mack VII bracelets were over there and he needed to check on Elli, assure her it was okay, "Would you like a drink?"

 **"** Stalling me won't change anything."

 **"** No, no, no! Threatening," Elli hugs her daddy's leg as he joins her behind the bar.

"Ah, yes," Loki watches as Tony's eyes flash below the bar, "Your daughter is very unique, do you even know what she really is?"

"No drink," Tony's throat swells, but he does his best to ignore the man's attempt to rile him, "You sure? I'm having one."

 **"** She would make a great heir, her kind are rumored to be extremely powerful," Loki muses to himself as Tony resists the urge to whip his glass at the God, "The Chitauri are coming, nothing will change that. What have I to fear?"

"The Avengers, it's what we call ourselves, sort of like a team. `EARTH'S MIGHTIEST HEROES' type of thing," slipping on the bracelets, Tony steps out from behind the bar with a small gesture towards Elli telling her to stay put.

"Yes, I've met them," the trickster smile turns even more confident.

"Yeah," Tony smiles right back at him, "takes us a while to get any traction, I'll give you that one…but, let's do a head count here. Your brother, the demi-God; a super soldier, a living legend who kind of lives up to the legend; a man with breath-taking anger management issues; a couple of master assassins, and you, big fella, you've managed to piss off every single one of them."

 **"** That was the plan."

 **"** Not a great plan. When they come, and they will, they'll come for you," Loki starts toward where Tony is standing.

 **"** I have an army."

 **"** We have a hulk."

"I thought the beast had wandered off."

"You're missing the point," Tony steps back with each step Loki comes closer to him, "There's no throne, there is no version of this, where you come out on top. Maybe your army comes and maybe it's too much for us, but it's all on you. Because if we can't protect the Earth, you can be damned well sure we'll avenge it."

 **"** How will your friends have time for me," Loki jumps forward when Tony runs out of floor space, grabbing the man's shirt and bringing the scepter up, "when they're so busy fighting you?"

Elli peaks out from behind the bar as the bad man taps the arc reactor with a glowing stick, resulting in a _ping!_ echoing through the room. She watches confused as the two men stare at each other before man taps it again in frustration.

 **"** It should work."

"Well, performance issues. You know?"

Tony curses his big mouth as Loki picks him up by the throat and throws him across the room. What is with Norse gods and throwing him?

"Jarvis," Tony rolls over in pain as Loki stomps toward him, "Anytime now."

Loki grabs Tony by the throat again, bringing him so close Tony can feel his breath.

 **"** You will all fall before me," Elli's eyes widen as the man throws her daddy out the window. A scream of anguish makes Loki turn just as blue ball of energy hits him. A small spark of fear grips Loki as he lifts himself to see the child of the man he just threw out the window standing over him, no longer looking human but a form of flaming energy.

"And there's one other person you pissed off," Iron Man flies up in the window, "Her name is Elli."

Loki doesn't get a chance to respond as father and daughter blast him with blue and white energy, sending him crashing through a wall.

***break break break***

Pepper and Elli were sitting in a safe room below Stark tower. When Selvig had powered up the portal the CEO had been in the elevator going between her floor and Tony's. It was only after Elli had calmed down from their encounter with Loki that Tony could hear her yelling for help. Standing guard at the entrance to the stairwell, Tony had only left to go fight the Chitauri after Pepper had sent him a text that they were secure in the bunker.

They had been watching the fight on Pepper's laptop, neither noticing Pepper's phone ringing. When Tony had flown up into the wormhole with a nuke strapped to his back, Elli's eyes changed color and her body started to glow. It was only when the Hulk caught the Iron Man suit out of the sky that the light show died down. Pepper let out a breath of relief, both because Tony was safe and because she really didn't want to find out if Elli could teleport.

***wooop***

A few days later, after sending Thor and Loki back to Asgard, a press conference was being held with the Avengers to inquire about the Chitauri and what was now being call the Battle of New York. When Fury had informed the team, Stark had cut the man off.

"Sorry Fury, gonna have to make a hard pass. Got a date that night," Steve had only looked at Tony with disgust, the man was so irresponsible he couldn't take it. Natasha had only shaken her head, while Barton and Banner looked unconcerned. Fury had given the man a good long look, before nodding and turning to Steve.

"Rogers, you're going to have to take lead on this one," even Natasha had looked a little shocked at that one.

And so, Steve was being swarmed by reporters while on the other side of New York a blonde haired Tony Stark watched his daughter play the best damned dog he had ever seen.

****TA DA****

 **Ok so Avengers is done. Next few chapters are going to be** **the main plot and then I might venture into Age of Ultron and/or other marvel movies depending on where it goes. In case any of you were wondering about Deedee, she had been living with Happy while the last of the construction of Stark tower was being finished.**

 **Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Alright so first, thank you guys for all the favorites and follows. There are now 118 people following this story, which just amazes me. You guys are great. Also, thanks to DC-Mythology-Lover, candycrum, sbrock777, IceSnowQueen, Metriqs, ramen-luver101, That Other Coin, AriellaSerenity, and Goldenfightergirl for reviewing.**

 **Now to answer some questions that came up in reviews:**

 **When will the team find out about Elli? So I have a bunch of plans floating around in my head about when and how the team will meet her, none solidified yet but she will meet them in the next few chapters. I'm thinking 2-3 specifically.**

 **Will I include Agents of Sheild? Unfortunately, I have yet to get around to watching the series. It will happen someday soon. I am a champion binge watcher. Despite that, I do enjoy fics where the agents make an appearance so I might have them show up just for a little bit of fun.**

 **As for the pairing, I have been thinking about the suggestion for Bucky and Tony. The more I think about it, the more and more excited I get about all the ideas that keep popping up. So it is definitely leaning towards Bucky/Tony right now. BUT, I'm terrible at writing romantic relationships (even more so being in them, lol) and so it will be in the background, brief mentions of them getting closer kind of thing. It will definitely be there, just not the main story line. If anyone is dying for more, after I complete this story I might make a oneshot where it is a bigger part of the plot.**

 **Sorry for the super long author note. I had a lot of stuff to get through. As always I do not own Marvel movies or characters. All rights belong to marvel and Disney.**

 *****whoop*****

If Tony had known what the day would entail as he got Elli ready for school that morning, he is pretty sure he would have gone back to bed and dragged his daughter with him. After handing the perky munchkin off to Happy, Tony had every intention of collapsing on the couch with a gallon of coffee. He had been swamped with paper work and meetings non-stop for the past two weeks since the invasion. While he could be on the street clearing rubble, Tony knew he could do a lot more from the background. He was doing everything in his power to get additional aid sent to New York, having doctors and supplies flown in daily. Tony had also been pulling favors left and right to get donations and volunteers in addition to SI's resources being open to public. Along with that, he also had to deal with the damage done to the tower. He and his daughter lived in it, after all. Almost everything in the penthouse had been fixed—except, of course the Loki shaped hole in the by the kitchen. He wanted to hang on to that one for a while.

He had just fallen to the couch, his body sinking into the plush cushions, when his phone began to ring.

"Sir, Fury is on the line."

"Tell him to fuck off," Tony groaned as he turned to lay side ways and hide his face in a pillow.

"He said no, Sir."

 _"Stark."_

Tony sat up as he tossed the pillow off of his face, glaring at Fury on the screen that hung on the other side of the room.

"Hey! I gave you the override code to Jarvis for emergencies only. EMERGENCIES NICKY! I have the right to not answer the phone!"

" _Tony, I need you to come in_ ," by the looks of Fury's face, the genius knew wasn't going to be able to get out of it. He missed the days before moving to New York. He and Elli would sleep till 9, she didn't leave him for half the day, and there was a pleasant lack of aliens attacking the city they lived in.

"I swear to Thor, if his brother is back, I am taking Elli and moving to Antarctica," no people, no aliens, just a shit-load of penguins. Sounded like a good idea to Tony, except for the whole freezing tundra thing.

 _"Quit being a drama queen and get here Stark,_ " Fury couldn't help but be a little amused by the man's antics. He wondered if Howard and he could've been friends if the man had been more like his son. Too bad he was a raging alcoholic for the second-half of his life.

"I'll get there when I get there," but Tony was already up and moving toward the window. The genius may sass everyone constantly but he never skirted away from responsibility.

***break***

Tony Stark was the most irresponsible man Steve had ever met. The whole team was out on the streets, busting their asses while he was high up in his tower looking down on everyone struggle to get their lives back together. The war hero regretted ever having any positive thoughts toward the man. The self-sacrificing play with the nuke had made Steve rethink the billionaire's true character—but he was wrong. Tony Stark was a selfish, impulsive, playboy who refused to get dirty with his team and clean up after the damage they had helped cause. He probably just used the nuke for attention, he loved being spotlighted in the media after all.

"Cap, we were going to take a break and get some food. Do you want to come?"

Steve looked to see Natasha walking up, Banner and Barton following behind her. Banner had been assisting in giving medical attention to those who needed it, while the pair of assassins had been on the street with him, clearing rubble and repairing buildings. A glint from the 'A' hanging off of Stark Tower caught the corner of the Captain's eye. He glared at the building as though it were the man he was beginning to loathe.

"Yeah, I'll be right there."

***break***

"What the hell is this supposed to be?"

"I think it is relatively self-explanatory, Stark," Fury stood with his arms crossed behind his back looking into the medical room that the two of them were currently standing outside of.

"You told us—told me he was dead. Do you have any idea how shitty that was to tell Pepper?"

"He essentially was; however, our medical staff was able to keep him alive just long enough to get him stable. And with a little push…"

"Is that why they are here," Tony gestured wildly to his daughter and chauffer. The two were sitting next to the bed with their backs facing the window. Even from here, he could tell his daughter was chattering up a storm, "You do know she has school today. And I most certainly did not give you permission to kidnap my daughter and encourage her to perform miracles."

"She called me Papa when Happy brought her in," the hints of a smile showed on Fury's face as Tony rolls his eyes. How Nick Fury came essentially act as Elli's grandfather was beyond him. It just sort of happened. The two men walk into medical room to be greeted by three smiling faces.

"Mr. Stark," Tony grins back at the man laying in the hospital bed.

"Agent."

***break***

On the other side of the world, one Pepper Potts is staring at the open file on the hotel desk. With in the file was a single piece of paper that confirmed what she had never thought possible. She hadn't thought it would come back positive, it was just to stop the itchy feeling in the back of her mind ever since Tony had designed the cloaking device for Elli. The brown hair and chocolate eyes had just made them look so alike…

A ringing from her purse startles her. Digging through her bag she almost wants to vomit when a picture of Elli and Tony in the kitchen, both covered in flour, greets her. She knew she had to tell him, would he react well? He would have to be happy about it, right? It explained a lot about the little Stark, but also added a million questions without any answers available to the always growing list. Would he feel guilty?

The phone stops ringing causing a strange sense of relief to flow through her. It doesn't last though as the ringing starts up again, pressuring Pepper into answering.

"Tony…I've got something to tell you."

 _"Oh, what a coincidence. I have something to tell you as well,_ " Tony doesn't seem to hear the hesitation in her voice, but she can definitely hear the excitement in his.

"You go first," maybe she would wait till she got back. Tell him face-to-face.

 _"Alright…Phil is alive!"_

"…what," Pepper's heart stops and she nearly drops the phone. But it was impossible, Fury had told Tony that the man was dead, a spear had gone through his chest, "I…I don't understand."

 _"Well turns out he was gripping to life with all of his agent might until Fury decided to kidnap Elli to revive him with that weird energy voodoo thing she does,"_ Tony chirped from the speaker, " _Get your butt back to the states, you lovebirds need to go on a date already."_

Pepper can only blink at her friend's explanation before bursting out into laughter, tears dripping onto her pencil skirt. Of course Elli did that.

" _Soooo…before I hand the phone off to lover boy, what did you need to tell me? Something good I hope—not as good as mine though. It'll be kind of hard to top that."_

"Oh…no, it's nothing bad," she may have been nervous to tell Tony, but she knew he would be happy in the end, "So, I kind of had the labs run some DNA and umm, Tony I'm not sure how to tell you this…"

" _Pep?"_

 _"_ Tony," taking a deep breath the woman just let it out, "the results of the test were faxed to me this morning and they came out positive. I'm not sure how, but Elli is yours—not just legally. You're biologically related."

The silence on the other end of the line lasts so long, Pepper has to pull the phone down from her ear to check to make sure the call didn't disconnect.

" _Oh…"_ Tony feels his brain crash as he tries to process what the red head had just told him, "… _wait, what?"_

***donefortodayyy***

 **So this chapter isn't nearly as long as usual and the sequence of events is more consistent. To be honest, I'm falling asleep at the keyboard and I kind of needed this filler chapter to establish some tension between Cap and Tony (I love the Captain, honest, but I am slightly salty with the man after Civil War so I shall punish him with my fiction. Mwahaha), as well as resurrect Phil because who could kill off that adorable man, and introduce another little plot twist.**

 **Hope you all enjoyed.**

 **BTW, did you guys know that Black Widow was once a nanny and had a fling with the good Captain? Lol, it is a movie called** ** _The Nanny Diaries_** **from 2007. I watched it the other day on Netflix. The movie itself is okay, but it is hilarious to see Scarlett Johansson and Chris Evans act together before the avengers movies.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Alright, so I'm sorry for not updating yesterday guys. I was with my dad all day and I had no access to the internet last night so unfortunately I could not post my usual chapter. I also have to apologize because I most likely will not be posting again until after memorial day due to once again lack of internet connection. I will however, have my laptop with me all weekend to write so I will try to post either multiple chapters on Tuesday or a super chapter.**

 **Once again, thank you all for the favorites, follows, and reviews. Special thanks to labass, arthemys, some guest, DC-Mythology-Lover, Lear, Jk, superstar072299, meowzac, ramen-luver101, another guest, kcheslock, and SilverShadowWolf46 for all of your kind words.**

 **Some answers to some questions and/or me just responding:**

 **DX-Mythology-Lover, I don't want to give anything away about Elli's origins (mostly because I don't have it all solidified in my head yet, lol) but I will tell you she has more than Tony's DNA going on so she isn't a direct clone or anything like that.**

 **superstar072299, I'm not sure yet if this story is going to go into civil war. If it does, I'm most likely going to butcher the plot to fit my needs. Even if civil war isn't used, I plan to include Peter in the story. He will show up more.**

 **SilverShadowWolf46, Bruce is going to be pretty important next chapter ;D**

 **Labass, your review made my day.**

***yay***

"-addy? Daddy? Daaaaddddyyyyyyy," Something was poking him. Well more like someone, but that someone was a five-year-old with a titanium-alloy finger. And that titanium-alloy finger was poking right into a bruise on his ribs from the mutant frogs the Avengers had faced the day before. He decides to ignore the poking until Elli pulls the blanket off his face, exposing him to the harsh light of the morning sun, causing the genius to hiss and strike back.

Still half asleep, Tony captures his daughter in his arms before rolling over and snuggling back under the covers. Elli squeals at her daddy's antics before squirming in his strong arms, careful not to kick too hard—they had been working on being gentle since Elli had accidently fractured her daddy's fibula. She had cried from guilt when Dr. Clemmons had informed the older Stark that he would have to wear a boot for a couple months. Rhodey had laughed when every time his best friend would try to take it off early, Elli would appear out of thin air to scold her daddy. The boot had attracted attention, of course. The press believed it to be a battle injury, while the Avengers were told an accident had occurred in the lab—which had resulted in Rogers lecturing the billionaire to be more careful as to not jeopardize the team. The genius may or may not have muttered ' _jackass'_ under his breath as the good Captain stormed away after a particularly annoying quip from Tony.

"While I can see you two are having fun, Elli needs to go to school and Tony, you need to get your butt to that board meeting," The father-daughter pair stop to look at Pepper, who is ignoring their pleading eyes and tapping away at her tablet.

"Come on, Pep. Can't I skip the board meeting? They're so boring. I'd rather stay home and play with Elli," the mini Stark's eyes light up at the thought of spending the day with her daddy.

"Please, please, please, Aunty Pepper? School is so boring," Pepper raises her eyebrows as Elli imitates her daddy, "I already know everything Ms. Buck is teaching."

Tony smirks down at the child still locked in his arms, a spark of pride building in his chest. Not much had changed since Pepper told him about the DNA test, they were father and daughter before Tony knew the truth. He just noticed the little bits of him that were present in his daughter. She had his nose and thick hair. She had his intellect as well as his ability to present witty comments. And she definitely had his stubborn attitude. Everyone in their tiny family agreed after some thought—there was no doubt about it, she was definitely his.

"Well, I guess you can stay home," Elli grins in victory as her daddy is shocked to see Pepper give in so quickly. Pepper starts to walk out of the room but stops to say over her shoulder, "but poor Peter. He will be so lonely without his bus buddy when your class goes to the Zoo."

"Wait, Pepper, I want to go! I want to go to the Zoo," she had almost forgot their field trip was today. The little Stark jumps out of her daddy's arms and is racing down the hall before Tony can even try to bribe her by buying her a Zoo of her own.

"That was very sneaky of you, Ms. Potts," Pepper smirks at her boss before throwing a shirt at his face.

"See you at the office, Mr. Stark."

***break***

In the end, Tony doesn't end up going to the office as a result of a giant gummy lizard rampaging on Harlem. He can't stop the laugh that escapes when the Hulk jumps off of a building to smash the candy creature, only to bounce off of it's jelly form.

"Stark, take this seriously," the Captain hears Iron Man laughing over the comms, this wasn't the time to goof off.

"I am taking this seriously," Tony uses one of his hand repulsors to cut through the red gummy goodness, the smell of burning sugar reaching his nose through the suit. The creature must be in pain from the burns, as it whips around causing it's tail to throw Natasha and Steve crashing into a Starbucks.

"STARK!"

"Oops, sorry," he can't help the wince at the angry voices on the other side of the comm link. He was definitely going to get an earful after this.

Iron Man starts cutting into the lizard as the Hulk decides to start chomping down seeing as his fists only kept bouncing off.

"Do you guys think it is cherry flavored?"

Tony dodges a wild swing from the creature as groans of annoyance reach his ears. Hey, it was an honest question.

"Sir, there seems to be a disturbance…"

"Not now, Jarvis. Kind of busy," Tony grunts as he blasts his way out of the lizard's mouth, chunks of what looks to be red jello falling to the street below.

"Sir, I must insist you listen. A 911-dispatch has just been sent to the local Zoo. It seems someone has released all the animals from their cages," Tony's stomach drops as he lands on a nearby roof.

"Stark! What are you-" Tony shuts off his comm as Jarvis connects to Elli's bracelet. Her voice comes across the speakers as Tony traces the dispatches ETA. Ten minutes.

" _Daddy?_ "

"Elli, baby, what is going on?"

" _Daddy, I can't find Peter_ ," they had been holding hands, but then people started screaming and running. She had gotten knocked down in the chaos.

"Sweetie, I'm sure he is alright," Tony's heart was pounding, he jumped off the roof and started flying toward the Zoo, ignoring his teammates' calls, "Do you know where your teacher went?"

 _"No,"_ a slight quiver in her voice pushes Tony to tell Jarvis to fly faster, _"Daddy, I gotta find Peter, Ms. Buck told us we had to stay with our buddies."_

"I'm sure Ms. Buck will understand, munchkin. Are there any adults around that could help you find Peter or Ms. Buck?"

" _No, everybody left…"_ Soft sniffling reaches Tony's ears.

"Jarvis, can you pull up Elli's location?"

"Right away, sir," a map with two dots—himself and Elli—appears in the helmet.

"Elli, can you stay where you are? I'm going to come get you."

 _"Okay,"_ Tony smiles at the bravery in Elli's voice. She may have a lot of power in her tiny body, but that didn't change the fact that she's a five-year-old little girl who was currently lost, _"Oh my gosh, Daddy! There's a lion! He looks just like Simba!"_

"Elli," Tony could see the Zoo now, his eyes widening in fear at his daughter's innocent excitement, "Don't you dare go near that lion."

" _But…but Simba… "_

"No."

" _…What if the lion is coming near me?"_

"ELLI!"

His daughter doesn't answer as he zooms toward her dot on the screen. Bile is rising up his throat as he lands, frantically turning and shouting his daughter's name. A purring sound makes him stop and sprint around the corner.

"DADDY! LOOK! SIMBA LIKES ME!" The giant cat was curled around his daughter, massive head lying in her lap, lifting every so often to give her a lick on the cheek.

"…You have got to be kidding me."

***break***

"What the hell Stark?" Multiple glares were sent his way as they settled around the table in the hellicarrier.

In the end, Tony knocked the lion out with a tranquilizer as a result of every attempt to get close being met with a growl. While it was obvious the lion had no intention of hurting her, the dart was necessary despite his daughter's glee at petting "Simba". Animal control as well as the police were coming and he had to get Elli out of there before they got arrived.

After helping round up and return all of the loose animals—it turned out that the same man, the _Jungle King_ as he wished to be called, was responsible for both the open cages as well as the gummy lizard. An odd combination but Tony could kind of see how the two complimented each other. After handing the guy over to the police, Tony had flown back to where he had left his teammates. Being the lucky man that he is—Tony had been just in time for Thor to summon a lightning bolt to tear the lizard apart, covering the entire street in a sugary syrup. The melted sugar had run into his suit and he felt sticky in places he did not want to think about. He had opted to stay in the suit, choosing to wait until he went home to have Jarvis hose him down.

"There was an emergency at the Zoo, a bunch of animals got loose and the police were still pretty far out so I figured you guys could handle Gumzilla," Tony was glad his mask was on right now, he couldn't stop the smirk at Rogers usually perfect hair covered in red goop.

"That doesn't change the fact that you turned off your comms and defied orders," Steve was trying to keep his patience with the man-child, but was struggling. Barton had badly twisted an ankle which could have been avoided had Iron Man been there, "your teammates should come before making yourself look good by rescuing some penguins."

"Alright, Capsicle," Tony could feel an eye twitch coming on, "I don't know if an old timer like you can remember the last time you went to a Zoo, but you know what is usually there?"

"Stark- "

"I'll tell you. A shit ton of elementary schoolers in matching t-shirts that would just look absolutely delicious to a hungry lion," he was pretty sure if it had been anyone other than Elli, they would've been mauled, "So while I am sorry Barton got hurt, he is a grown-ass man and not for one second have a had an ounce of regret about going to that Zoo today."

Barton blinked at the two, to be honest he didn't blame Stark—it was his own damn fault for not paying attention. Though, he did have to agree with Steve about Tony going off on his own without saying anything—even if it was to go and save a bunch of kids.

"That's enough," Fury glared at both men, "Stark, next time say something before taking off. Now all of you get out, you smell like burning marshmallows."

"That's it?" Steve gaped at the director, "You're just going to tell him not to do it again and nothing else? He does this all the time!"

"Steve has a point; this is the third time Stark has gone AWOL this month without any warning or good explanation," Natasha crossed her arms as she leaned back in her chair, even when she was spying on him as an assistant, Stark had pulled stunts like this frequently. The man was the same selfish person she had met two years ago. She still didn't understand why Pepper never seemed bothered whenever he missed another meeting.

The director had known exactly where Stark was each time he went off the grid. Even without the whole Zoo fiasco, Tony had a lot going on with his daughter. Early June—halfway through the year—meant it was Elli's growth month. In order to avoid injuries, she had to be refitted for her legs and arm every six months. New prosthetics meant a lot of pain for a few days and constant monitoring for the next few weeks. Tony had to be ready at a moments notice if one of Elli's limbs malfunctioned at school—not that anyone else on the team knew that.

Fury stared them all down, seeing the tension and distrust between the group. He knew Tony wasn't going to like this, but something needed to be done.

***break***

"No," Tony was kneeling in front of the kitchen stool his daughter was seated on, a screw driver fiddling with her knee joint. Fury was standing next to them, petting Deedee and holding the faux skin that usually hid the mechanical leg.

"I'm not really giving you the option, Tony."

"It's my house, Nick," the genius reaches up as Elli hands him the oil, "Did you forget that my secret daughter lives here?"

"I know you have this fear of people knowing about Elli," Tony snorts in agreement—he had every right after Obadiah, "but these people are supposed to be your teammates. You can't save the world with people on a regular basis and not let them know you have a kid."

"Oh, yes I can."

Fury just stared Tony down as the man moved his daughter's knee back and forth. The girl was wrinkling her nose again, annoyed with her daddy and Papa for talking like she wasn't here. She didn't like that her daddy wasn't getting along with his friends because of her and she didn't see why they couldn't move into the tower. Personally, she wanted to live with Captain America, but her daddy was being what Pepper called a _poop head._ She would bug her daddy about it, however, she was in trouble still for cuddling with the lion after her daddy told her not to. So she kept her mouth shut—not bothering to disguise her pout. Tony observed her crossed arms and jutted out lip with a sigh, before standing up to wipe the oil off of his hands.

"Fine. But they aren't living on the same floor and she isn't meeting them until I am ready for them to meet her."

"Deal," Elli grinned at her Papa, she was going to meet Captain America!

***end***

 **So Fury is going to make them bond whether they like it or not! The next few chapter will definitely be interesting.**


	11. Chapter 11

**So I posted this a lot later than I wanted to. I've been pretty busy the past week and couldn't get around to writing like I thought I would. I did promise a longer chapter and this one is over 2000 words and I have the next chapter almost ready, I just need to work with it a little more tomorrow. As always I want to thank you all for your support. I will list all of the reviewers tomorrow and answer questions then. I will however say that babycakes10121's review gave me some inspiration relating to Fury.**

 **I do not own any of marvel's characters or movies. All rights go to Disney and Marvel.**

 *****here we go*****

"—and this is the main kitchen. The next two levels above us are mine and Pepper's floors so I won't bother showing you those," it had taken another month but Tony had finally gotten the six floors below renovated for the Avengers.

While he could have just lumped them all together on one floor—he and Pepper agreed they all deserve their space. The five team members each got their own floors with the only the necessities (they could design their floors themselves, Tony wasn't going to assume their tastes), Steve's floor was the lowest, followed by Thor, Clint, Natasha, and Banner. Right above Banner's and just below Pepper's was a team floor—for "bonding" as Fury liked to call it.

"This is nice, Tony. Thank you," Bruce was currently rummaging through the tea cabinet—Tony had stocked everyone's favorites after Fury sent over a grocery list.

"Don't thank him, it was probably Pepper that did all the work," Natasha is sifting through the fridge, inspecting the various juices Tony had brought for breakfast.

He squawks indignantly at the assassin—he and Elli (disguised of course) had spent hours at the grocery store searching for all of their picky tastes. He knows he could send someone else, or just have Jarvis order it all, but they hadn't gone in a while and Elli loves to ride on the back of the cart.

"On the contrary, I did not lift a finger, Ms. Romanoff."

The group turned to see Pepper Potts step off of the elevator, not bothering to look up from the tablet in her hands. Her high heels tapped the hardwood floor as she went to Tony's side, a dog following behind her, Captain America plushie held in its jaws.

"What is this beast?" Thor peaks around the counter to see the golden haired creature as it curled around the red head's feet.

"This is Deedee," Tony got a treat from the cabinet and tossed it, the retriever lifting her head to catch it before returning to chomping down on the stuffed toy, "and she is a dog, Thor."

"What is the purpose of such a creature? Does it guard you?"

"She is a pet—kind of like a companion, I guess," and in a way she could be a guard dog when it came to Elli.

"So it does not aid you in battle?"

"No?"

Everyone glances at the god of lightening as he contemplates the concept of a "pet" before Clint turns his attention back to the billionaire and his dog.

"Your dog's name is Deedee? And what's with the Cap doll, you a secret fan?" the archer raised an eyebrow at the man, who looked down to see Elli's favorite plushie being covered in dog saliva. Tony discretely kicks Pepper's leg who glares at the genius before taking in the hidden panic behind the man's eyes. Having not been listening to the conversation, Pepper confusedly follows Tony's gaze to the dog at her feet before a feeling of dread rushes over her.

"Oh…the uh…doll, Agent brought it over one day," it wasn't a lie, Phil had gotten the doll for Elli's fifth birthday, "And yep, that's her name, didn't pick it out though," Tony is trying to be nonchalant about unsuccessfully trying to force the plushie out of the dog's mouth, but he is panicking when Deedee's teeth sink into the cotton.

"Who did?" Tony tries to think about how to answer that before giving one last tug causing the rip in the toy Captain's neck to grow until completely beheading the doll. Pepper can't help the gasp that escapes her as Tony stares dumbly at his daughter's ruined possession. The team watches the two with confusion—why were they so upset about a dog toy?

 _"Sir?"_ Tony snaps his head up at his AI's voice, while Bruce scrunched his eyebrows. It looked like the billionaire was relieved.

"Yeah, Jay?"

 _"Nick Fury is on the line,"_ Tony allows Jarvis to bring the director on the kitchen's screen, hopefully he wasn't calling about Elli.

 _"Stark, is the rest of the team with you?"_ Fury isn't looking at them but seems distracted by something behind the camera.

"Right here, sir," only glancing at the Captain, Fury nods before addressing the whole team.

 _"Loki is back,"_ with his one good eye, Fury stares Thor down—Asgardian justice his ass. The blonde god had the decency to look sheepish when his teammates gape at him.

"He escaped?"

"AND YOU WAITED TO LET US KNOW THIS NOW?!" If Natasha wasn't gripping his arm, Clint would have been attacking the asgardian even knowing he would never have a chance of winning.

 _"We will discuss this later—right now I need you all to head to Central Square and stop him from blowing up anymore billboards,"_ the Avengers are moving to get suited up but just as Fury is about to cut the call, a small girlish voice catches the team's attention.

 _"Papa? Are you talking to daddy?"_

Behind the camera, the door to Fury's office opens and the youngest Stark skips inside with a juice box. Her Papa had stocked his fridge for the weekend and even though it was past six, her Papa was letting her drink juice as long as Elli promised not to tell her daddy. She hoped her daddy was calling about her Cap doll—she had forgot it at home.

"Is that…a child, director?" Natasha was rarely surprised—but Nick Fury having a child in his office that was calling him _Papa_ was too much of a curve ball even for her.

 _"Take care of Loki,"_ not bothering to address Natasha's inquiry, Fury ends the call.

The team stares at the black screen, not noticing Pepper dragging a hand down her face or Tony rushing off to avoid the gossip that was sure to follow.

**break**

"Papa! I wanted to talk to daddy!" The white haired child climbs into her Papa's lap to look at a black screen in disappointment.

"Sorry, baby girl, but your daddy had to go save some people. We'll call him tomorrow, okay?"

Part of their deal had included Fury babysitting while the Avenger's got settled in the tower. Tony wanted to get a feel for the Avenger's habits and schedules before Elli was in the tower with them. Not that Fury minded—he loved the girl to death. They were even going to have her sixth birthday in his home later that week so that they could celebrate and keep Elli a secret at the same time. He and Pepper had been trying to get Tony to agree to invite the Avengers but he was being as stubborn as usual.

"Is daddy going to be on the T.V. then? Can I watch?" Fury knew the girl was only asking to be polite—she would never take no for an answer. If she wasn't in school when the Avenger's went out on missions, Elli insisted on watching whichever news station was broadcasting the fight. And if no news stations had the footage, Jarvis would hack into Shield's field cameras for her.

"Of course, but you need to change into your pajamas first," standing up with his granddaughter in his arms, Fury carries the girl to the living room where her overnight bag is sitting on the cushions. He hadn't even been aware that his couch was a pullout until the first time Elli had spent the night.

He helps her find her P.J.'s—a little red night gown with tiny Iron Man's outlined in gold flying all around the cloth—and then sends her off to the bathroom to brush her teeth. He had looked for a news cast but had given up when Jarvis suddenly hacked his television and pulled up Iron Man's visuals. When she returns they both settle into the pullout, Elli on his lap once again as they watch the Avengers run around the screen.

Knowing he will get the reports later, Fury doesn't pay much attention and instead focuses combing the knots out of Elli's hair. He can tell how tense she is—she had always been extremely protective of the older Stark. Even when they first met when she was just three years old the girl had been ready to go after anyone that threatened her father.

***flashbacktoIRONMAN2***

 _Fury had known about the child before this—Coulson had informed him in person of her existence. But seeing was much different than hearing an agent report on her…oddities. He was annoyed when he got there. Stark was laying on his back with the toddler balanced on his stomach—both of them nibbling on fried dough._

 _"Sir! I'm gonna have to ask you to exit the donut," the Starks look at him as Tony lowers his sunglasses while squinting, his daughter looking to him before giggling and following his example with her the bright red frames she was sporting. The billionaire sighs and scoops up the child before joining the director on the ground._

 _"I told you I don't wanna join your super-secret boy band," the three of them are in a booth, the two men sipping black coffee as Elli pretends to do the same with chocolate milk._

 _"No, no, no. See, I remember, you do everything yourself," Fury keeps his tone light hearted for the child's sake, but he knows Tony is getting the message, "How's that working out for you and your daughter?"_

 _"-It's... It's... It's..."_

 _"I'm sorry," he isn't really sorry, Stark always managed to make Fury's life much more complicated then necessary, "I don't wanna get off on the wrong foot."_

 _"Do I look at the patch or the eye? Honestly, I'm a bit hung over," Tony is back to squinting at the man, the toddler no longer giggling as she watches both of them with calculating eyes too mature for her age, "I'm not sure if you're real or if I'm having..."_

 _"I am very real. I'm the realest person you're ever gonna meet."_

 _"Just my luck," Tony rolls his eyes before looking around, "Where's the staff here?"_

 _"That's not looking so good," Fury caught a glance of the darkened veins running up the genius' neck._

 _"It was worse before," both men's attention snapped at the tense whisper, Tony adopting a look of remorse as he studied his daughters tense grip on the glass of milk._

 _"Munchkin, I…I…OW!"_

 _Stark practically flies out of his seat as Coulson comes from behind and injects a fluid into his neck. Fury knew it was coming but he can't help but be startled himself as Stark's child begins to glow, her hair flaming into wispy tendrils._

 _"Elli," Coulson calls the girl softly as she examines her daddy hunched over, the dark blue lines in his neck receding below the armor, "it's alright. I just gave him some medicine. You know how your daddy is, gotta trick him into taking it."_

 _The ethereal toddler lifts her head to look at the agent before turning her gaze across the table to the director. He would never admit it—but in that moment, the most powerful super spy in the world was afraid of what the toddler would do to him if her daddy ended up dying from the poisoning._

 _***break***_

 _"Now this, on the other hand," Fury had gone to Stark's mansion a couple weeks later, the two were sitting in the half destroyed living room, "is Agent Romanoff's assessment of you. Read it."_

 _"…'Personality overview. Mr. Stark displays compulsive behavior'…" Stark raised his eyebrows, "In my own defense, that was last week…'Prone to self-destructive tendencies,' I was dying. I mean, please. And aren't we all?"_

 _Fury only stares blankly._

 _"'Textbook narcissism'? Agreed. Okay, here it is. 'Recruitment assessment for Avenger Initiative. Iron Man? Yes.'…" Tony rubs his chin, "I gotta think about it."_

 _"Read on."_

 _"'Tony Stark not...Not recommended'? Seriously?"_

 _"It's just the official statement, even if Agent Romanoff doesn't know it—her report is extremely lacking due to forces out of her control. This is the one those with access to our databases will see. The real one is just in my and Coulson's heads," Fury had promised to keep the Stark child out of regular knowledge and while the Shield servers were the best protected in the world—he wasn't taking any chances._

 _"So you do approve of me, huh Nicky?" The billionaire wiggles his eyebrows at the director._

 _"Don't call me that."_

 _"Is eyepatch better?"_

 _Fury says nothing, only gets up to leave. When he is almost to the front door, a tiny body blocks his path. The golden eyes look into his soul and the man is convinced the little girl is sizing him up._

 _"Here," the toddler shoves a homemade thank you card into the spy's hands before running off to her daddy. Carefully unfolding it, the inside was a portrait of himself along with the two Starks and what he assumed to be a dog and a unicorn. He gently tucked the paper into his coat for safe keeping until he returned to his home. Looking at it again, Fury makes a quick decision to put the drawing up in a place of honor on the fridge. It still hasn't been taken down nearly three years later._

 _***break***_

 ** _SO I am sorry but the avengers did not "meet" Elli in this chapter. BUT I promise, it is happening next chapter. I just got really carried away with Fury babysitting._**


	12. Chapter 12

I'm so sorry for keeping you guys waiting so long! I have 320 followers on this story which is just freaking amazing! It's been a hectic month but you guys have kept supporting me and the story so thanks! The reason I haven't updated is that I've been extremely busy with work and family stuff. SUMMER IS SUPPOSED TO BE RELAXING, DANG IT. Thankfully, my schedule is slowing down and I had the time to rewrite this 3 times. I just wasn't happy with it and writer's block hit me hard. I am content with the final product, though it is definitely still littered with grammar mistakes as per usual…sorry haha.

I usually answer questions from reviews but I think(?) most of them are answered in the chapter. If not, I'll answer some next update.

As always I don't own the avengers….

****onwards*****

"Is there a reason you are bullying me and not your brother?"

Tony flew to left to dodge the swinging spear Loki was currently yielding. It was similar to the weapon he had used with the tesseract, however, this time it lacked the blue glow and instead radiated a dark green. The two were alone, Tony's teammates too far away to help him take down Loki.

The rest of the Avengers were occupied; the scepter wielding demi-god had cast a spell that summoned what looked to be a hoard of horned monkeys. Each time the Captain was able to throw off one, two more little devil monkeys took its place. While he was glad to be avoiding the monkey mayhem, another one-on-one with Loki was not high on Tony's wish list.

"I am hoping if I make you bleed," Loki lifted the scepter again, teeth sparkling into a sadistic grin, "the little _Skīr-r_ will come out of hiding."

Another swing barely misses Tony's head as he raises his eyebrows—not that Loki could see them behind the Iron Man mask. He wasn't sure what a _Skīr-r_ was, but he had a feeling it had to do with his baby girl.

" _Skīr-r?_ I'm going to have to ask you to clarify, I don't speak crazy," Tony cringed as Loki's spear grazed the side of his armor, sparks shooting from the clashing metal. Shit, that thing could actually do some damage.

"Her kind, the _Skīr-r,"_ this time the spear grazes Tony's boot as he tries to fly away from the demi-God. He loses control of the repulsors for a second, but rights himself just as Loki swung for his chest, "it is what she is, you foolish mortal."

 _"Stark! What is he talking about?"_ Tony ignores Steve in favor of not being skewered by Loki, an exasperated sigh comes across the line, _"Thor, do you know what Loki is looking for?"_

 _"Aye, the Skīr-r,"_ Thor grunts as a demon monkey tugs at one of his golden locks before he grabs it by the neck and tosses it carelessly, _"are ancient beings of legend. The All-father is the only Asgardian to have ever met one."_

 _"Why does Loki think Stark knows a Skīr-r then?"_

 _"I do not know, however, if Loki thinks a Skīr-r is here on Midguard, the All-father would want to know,"_ Thor twirled Mjornir causing monkeys to fly everywhere as he headed toward the Man of Iron and his brother.

"Shit, shit, shit," cringing within the suit, Tony curses himself for not putting his mic on mute. He doubts he will be able to escape the questions later. Distracted, Tony doesn't notice Loki's scepter glowing an ominous green until he is blasted into a building.

 *****line break*****

Fury started to search for Elli's bracelet soon after establishing connection with Jarvis _._ The first time Loki's scepter had cut into the metal of Tony's suit, Elli's hair and eyes had burst into flaming energy, ruining the braids he had just finished. If he didn't find the damn thing soon, the ethereal child would leave despite her daddy telling her to stay with her Papa. He dug around in her bag until the little pink band appeared under a purple sundress.

"Elli, sweetie pie, it's alright," Fury scoops the six-year-old into his arms, a pleasant warmness tickling his skin from the tendrils of hair floating around her head. He slips the bracelet over her hand before securing it on her wrist and pressing the button that suppressed her energy. Her eyes dulled and her hair fell limply but she doesn't turn away from the screen.

"He is looking for me. It's my fault he is hurting daddy," the whisper is barely loud enough for Fury to hear, but he cringes in guilt all the same.

"No, no baby girl, it's not your fault," her Papa held her closer, running soothing fingers through her hair. She didn't believe him, but she remained quiet, twitching every time her daddy's suit took a little more damage. The pair couldn't hear what Loki was saying, Jarvis usually muted fights due to Clint's constant swearing, but she knew he was talking about her.

Clinging to her Papa, the world began spinning as a dark green light invaded her daddy's vision causing Elli to start to truly panic. Everything was blurry until the suit came to an abrupt stop when her daddy's body hit a building. Warnings and alerts flashed across the screen as her daddy struggled to get up. It was getting hard for her to breath as a green leather boot came down next to the arc reactor.

Fury cursed as the bracelet began to spark. Loki was on the screen holding the Iron Man suit down, the scepter raised high above his head.

"ELLI DON'T—" A wave of blue lights throws Fury into the wall as Elli's bracelet breaks in half.

****line breaaakkk****

"THOR GET TO IRON MAN, NOW!"

Steve could only watch as Loki whipped Stark around like a ragdoll, sending him crashing into buildings. The whole team had been trying to get close enough to help but every time they were pushed back by a blast from Loki or a new horde of monkeys.

Throwing more devil monkeys off of him, Steve looked up again to see the Iron Man armor dangling upside down, Loki holding the suit by the right ankle. It was impossible to tell if Stark was unconscious or just dazed from all the manhandling.

They were as high as the portal had been—Steve realized, as Loki let the suit go.

"He isn't slowing down!"

"Thor isn't going to make it," Clint was on the roof a few buildings over, having been able to escape most of the monkeys "and Hulk is buried in fuzzballs a few streets over."

It was exactly like last time, except that no one would be there to catch him. They could only watch in horror as their teammate fell from a deadly height.

" _NO_!" All of the Avengers looked up to see a ball of light collide with the Iron Man armor.

***line breaaak***

" _No, no, no, daddy_ ," Elli couldn't help mumbling to herself as she flew through the city—it was a nervous tick she had inherited from the elder Stark. Pepper said they both had so much going on in their brains, sometimes they couldn't hold it all in.

She was turning around a building when she saw him falling, the same way he falling was last time, the same way he fell in her nightmares since that day.

"D _addy…no, no, no….NO!"_

She didn't bother to slow down as she collided with her daddy's amour, enveloping it in her energy and letting it flow under the metal to her daddy's bruised skin. They both descended slowly to the street below, her daddy still asleep, not noticing that the chaos around them had stopped as the monkeys poofed into green smoke.

Gently tearing the ruined armor off, Elli cupped her daddy's face in her hands as she kneeled on his chest. Taking one hand from his face to rest on the arc reactor, Elli could feel the light running through his veins as the bruises on his face began to fade and the cuts closed. It was only when he started mumbling in his sleep that she stopped—her daddy would be okay now.

" _Skīr-r…"_ Elli whipped around to see Thor coming closer to them, the other avengers not far behind, "Never in the nine realms did I think I would ever see one…"

"How do you know that that is a… _Skīr-r_?" Captain America came up next to where Thor had paused in shock, "…is it supposed to do that?"

For the first time in her life, Elli was suddenly very self-conscious. Her light was flickering very fast, her body almost like a strobe light in the mix of her excitement and fear. Captain America was standing not even 10 feet from her! All the times she played pretend with Agent Phil and it was finally happening! But…something was wrong, in all her fantasies and daydreams, her hero was smiling at her, almost as excited to meet her as she was him. He wasn't smiling right now, his mouth formed a thin line and his blue eyes that she imagined would sparkle in real life—they were cold, calculating. She didn't like this, she wished her daddy would just wake up already.

"Ah, there you are," Elli jumped, Captain America forgotten, as Loki landed next to them. She stopped flickering and began to burn in anger, her hair flaming bluish energy around her head. How dare he even come near her daddy again.

 _"GO AWAY!"_ A wave of blue light pushed everyone back a few feet, Elli remained on her daddy's chest as the air whipped around them.

"Now, now," Loki scowled before pushing back against the wind to get closer, "no need to get testy."

Elli only answered by blasting the man straight through the nearest building.

"Thor, can you get that thing away from Stark?" Captain America narrowed his eyes at the creature sitting on Iron Man's chest. Anything Loki was interested in had to be dangerous. He didn't know what Stark had to do with it, but the thing had to be contained before it caused anymore damage.

"Not without hurting the Man of Iron," Thor pushed again the building wind, confused at the actions of the ancient being that had been in many of his childhood stories, "however, I am not sure we should interfere. _Skīr-r_ are powerful, but told to be extremely peaceful beings unless feeling threatened in some way. Engaging her now might only make things worse…"

"So I should just let it rampage?" Thor shook his head in defeat, mortals were impossible to reason with. Steve growled lowly in irritation as the vortex surrounding the two seemed to keep pushing him further and further back, "Hawkeye, Widow, I don't suppose either of you could get a shot?"

"Not with this wind, arrows and bullets would be useless," Clint stood at the top of the nearest rooftop, arrow trained on the thing sitting on Stark's chest.

"Thor might be right, I think we just have to wait this out," Natasha was studying the being Thor had told them was a _Skīr-r._ The energy was human shaped but small. Compact. What confused her was why the vortex was still going, Loki hadn't come back so there was no reason for her to feel threatened. And she hadn't seemed like she felt threatened by Loki—more like she was angry, like he had touched something that was hers. It was as though the _Skīr-r_ was having a fit of some sorts. A tantrum, Natasha's eyes widened, a child's tantrum.

"Thor, how—"

"NOW CLINT!" The whirlwind was suddenly non-existent as strange calm laid itself over the Avengers. Natasha felt her stomach drop as the energy had dimmed to a dull glow as an arrow cut easily through the air towards its target.

***line breakkk***

When Tony woke up feeling pleasantly warm and lacking the pounding throb of a concussed head, he groaned in annoyance. He loved his baby girl, he really did, but he wished she hadn't inherited his tendency to ignore rules—even if she broke them for the right reasons. He knew Elli hated seeing him hurt, but how was he going to explain to the Avengers how he made a complete recovery over-night?

He groaned again as he thought about the lecture Rogers was sure to give him, he had passed out during the middle of a fight. And the whole _Skīr-r_ thing was going to suck when they inevitably brought it up. Now he had a headache that his daughter's energy couldn't fix. Going to pinch his nose in irritation, Tony finally noticed that he was still wearing the suit. The suit which was still offline and very heavy without any power to run it. Cracking open one eye, he noticed it was still fairly light out, despite the setting sun. Lying in the middle of a destroyed Central Square, Tony would have sworn aloud if not for the six-year-old right in his line of vision.

Elli was kneeling on his chest, her forehead pressed against the arc reactor with her hands pressed against her ears. And she was glowing, fantastic.

Looking around, Tony saw Thor, Natasha, and Rogers standing together behind Elli's back. He couldn't see Clint or Bruce, but he figured the archer was on a rooftop somewhere and Bruce was probably getting pants. Glancing around some more, he noticed Natasha's hair whipping around her while he felt no wind whatsoever. Realizing they were in the eye of some kind of tornado or vortex, Tony knew Elli was in the middle of a tantrum. She didn't have them as often anymore, but with the high stress of the past few hours, Tony couldn't blame his baby for losing some control. Raising a heavy metal hand, he ran his fingers through the wispy tendrils of hair floating around her head.

" _Daddy?"_ Lifting her head slowly, Elli blinked away tears. Tony watched as little balls of light floated upward from her eyes—he realized he had never seen her cry in this form before.

"Yeah, sweetie pie. I'm alright, it's alright, we're alright," Tony cracked a smile as his daughter sat straight up, smacking his chest repeatedly as she hiccupped with her sobs.

" _It's not al-hic-right! Y-you were falling, and-hic-I caught you and, and,"_ Elli was rubbing her eyes furiously now, the mechanical hand still beating on her father's armor, as she desperately tried to stop crying because she was a big girl and big girls didn't have temper tantrums because things didn't go their way, " _AND I DON'T THINK CAPTAIN AMERICA LIKES ME!"_

"Elli, baby, no one could ever _not_ like you, you're the kindest, smartest, most amazing little girl in the world. Got it? Best kid ever. Now honey bunch, you gotta take some deep breaths, otherwise you might give yourself a heart attack" he wasn't sure what had happened after he got knocked out, but he was going to kick Captain America's ass after this, and Loki's if Elli hadn't done it already, "that's it, in and out. How about we get ice cream after this?"

" _Ice cream?"_ Her sobs had been reduced to sniffles, a hopeful smile in her voice made him chuckle. His kid still was a little glutton for mint chocolate chip.

"Yeah, we can go with Papa. And you can get two scoops, just this once."

 _"Two!?"_ She never got _two_ scoops!

"Yep," Tony smiled, "but first you have get rid of the whirlwind and turn off the glowing. Otherwise, I don't think we can go."

Looking around, Elli noticed the weather anomaly she had created. Nodding, she cut the wind off before looking at her daddy expectantly. Tony wrapped a metal arm around her waist as he began to slowly sit up.

"Forgot something," he would have to get Fury to pick them up since the suit was down for the count right now. He could get Clint or Natasha to call in since his comm was busted as well.

Hearing Rogers shout, Tony turns his head as Elli's glowing form dims to smooth sun kissed skin. Not a second later, the metal tip of an arrow collides with his chest plate resulting in a resounding _ping._ Rather than falling to the ground, the arrow remained in place having speared his daughter right through the back. Tony's throat felt raw.

"Elli…"

Elli looked down at the piece of metal that protruding from her tummy. She was slightly irritated that it had ruined one of her favorite pairs of pajamas but then froze as she realized it was dripping blood. Her blood. Wide eyes looked up at her daddy as she tried to say it didn't hurt, that he didn't have to worry but instead she could only cough violently as blood pooled in her mouth, the dark red liquid spraying across her daddy's face.

"ELLI!"

***linnneee break***

I'm sorry, this is a terrible place to leave you guys but I gotta stop for now. And she did technically meet the avengers ;) Sorry if Steve seemed like a total ass in this, it is accidental but also kind of on purpose. Oops! He'll redeem himself though!

ALSO, is anyone playing pokemon go? I got a Vulpix last night and squealed with joy :D


	13. Chapter 13

So I felt bad leaving you guys with that cliffhanger, so I made sure to update quickly this time! I was reading reviews all day just laughing, you all are hilarious and so nice even when I leave you with that ending, haha! Anyways, once again, sorry for any grammar mistakes.

And as always, I still don't own the avengers or anything to do with Marvel.

**enjoy***

The Avengers minus Tony were on the main deck, a heavy silence shared between them. Thor stood at the railing, gripping the metal so hard an imprint of his hands was forming. Bruce sat at the table, tapping his fingers and taking deep breaths every time his skin started to turn a little green. Steve sat opposite the doctor, holding his head in his hands. Natasha leaned against a wall, arms crossed tightly, glaring at any of the crew that threw the slightest glance towards them. Clint was pacing back and forth, a hand running back and forth through his hair as he tried not to throw up again.

Natasha had assured him it wasn't his fault, he hadn't known, but Clint couldn't help feeling like the biggest asshole in the world. He had shot a kid; a super powered kid that he wasn't sure was entirely human, but a kid none the less. It kept playing back in his mind, the arrow digging into the soft flesh, blood everywhere. He hadn't been able to see the girl's face, but Stark's eyes were wide with terror as he held the bleeding child in his arms. Clint wasn't sure he would ever get that image out of his head.

The sound of the door opening got all of their attention as Fury and Coulson walked up to the table.

"Any of you want to explain what happened?" Silent looks were shared across the table as Fury leaned onto the metal surface and eyed each and everyone of them. Steve swallowed before trying to defend their actions, he still believed the whole situation to be a result of Stark withholding information from his team. If only the man had told them before Loki had shown up, Thor could've gotten the creature to Asgard.

"Sir, we didn't know the _Skīr-r_ wasn't mature," was it considered a child, Steve wasn't sure, "It— "

" _SHE!"_ The director of SHIELD slammed his fists down as he practically growled at America's favorite hero. Roger's mouth hung slightly open as he blinked at the man's unexplained rage.

"…What?"

" _She,_ Captain Rogers. The child who ended your battle with Loki and saved your teammate while you all had your thumbs up your asses, the one who is currently getting an arrow removed from her right lung and upper stomach is a she. Do _not_ refer to her as an it."

Steve splutter out words but they only came out as mumbled gibberish as he turned bright red. Natasha observed the exchange with a careful eye while both Bruce and Clint felt slightly green for very different reasons.

"Sir," Fury turned to glare at her, he wasn't pleased with any of them. Barton and Rogers were at the top of his shit-list, but that didn't mean the others were in the clear, "why did she, the _Skīr-r,_ save Stark? What does she have to do with him?"

"Eleanor Maria Stark." For the first time since coming into the room, Coulson spoke—his tone flat and his face blank. Natasha rose an eyebrow expectantly as Fury snorted a cold laugh, "Her name is Eleanor Maria Stark. She is Stark's daughter."

"Tony adopted a kid? Since when?" Bruce sucked in a breath, he wasn't sure how the whole team missed such an important piece of information.

"Her birthday is next week so about six years. And she isn't technically adopted, she is biologically his." Pepper had called Coulson earlier, desperate for a replacement Captain America plush as the dog had managed to ruin the one he had given the little Stark two years prior. He had promised to find a replacement in time for the party, however, he wasn't sure how he felt giving Elli anything that had to do with Captain America right now.

"Impossible! She is a _Skīr-r!_ How could she have mortal blood in her veins?" Thor had never heard of any _Skīr-r_ mating outside their species.

" _Skīr-r_ or not, Elli has half of Stark's DNA," Fury felt a sick satisfaction at the pale faces of the heroes before him. The realization of what they had done seemed to finally be hitting all of them. Clint looked as green as the Hulk as he practically ran from the room.

"Congratulations team, you managed to shoot Stark's daughter the same day you moved into his tower," with those parting words, Fury turned on his heel, his trench coat fanning out behind him. The Earth's mightiest 'heroes' could stew in their guilt by themselves, he had a grandbaby to check on.

***line break***

Clint sat in an air vent, peeking through the grate into the room where the little Stark was being treated for-the archer swallowed the guilt creeping up his throat-the arrow he had shot into her back. It had been angled just right that it managed to pierce a lung as well as her stomach.

Wires and tubes extended from all over her body as a woman Fury had greeted as Dr. Clemmons sat down with Tony at the side of the little girl's bed. He'd never seen the man this way, the genius was always snarky and full of life, but now he was silent, holding his daughter's hand tightly.

His teammate's daughter. He speared Tony Freaking Stark's secret kid while the man was holding the her in his arms. Dammit he might be sick again.

He crawled away, guilt eating at him as Pepper burst into the room with Coulson, tears streaming down her face.

***line break***

Elli blinked her eyes at the bright light shining over head. A beeping made her look over to the heart monitor next to her bed, eyes trailing to the wire connected to the clip on the pointer finger of the hand that wasn't prosthetic. Her daddy's fist held the other fingers making them feel pleasantly warm. Coughing as a giggle escaped her, Elli struggled to lift her other arm to poke her daddy's head.

"Daaadddyyyyy," her voice was slightly hoarse and a few coughs escaping her as she continued to poke him. Her daddy swatted at her hand in a sleepy manner before sitting straight up, his hair sticking straight up on one side, eyes impossibly wide. She couldn't help laughing at her daddy before her body shuddered and went into a coughing fit.

"Oh baby girl, I'm so sorry," Tony tried to smooth his daughter strangled breaths by gently rubbing her back, careful to avoid the area where the arrow went through. He wanted to hold her tightly in his arms, but feared damaging her even more.

"She's up!" Dr. Clemmons strolled into the makeshift hospital room as Elli's coughs died down.

"Yeah she just woke up now. But shouldn't her body have healed more?" Every other cut, scrape, and bruise in her life had healed in minutes. Hell, when she broke her wrist one afternoon, it was completely healed by her bedtime.

"Usually I would say yes, but I have a theory. She's burnt out, Tony," a big yawn escaped the white haired child as she rubbed her eyes, solidifying Clemmons claim, a few coughs following after, "Has she ever used her powers that much in such a short amount of time?"

"No," Clemmons was right, Elli had flown from Fury's apartment, healed him, created a wind storm, and gotten hurt in the span of a couple hours, it had been a lot for the almost seven-year-old, "I don't think she has. So you're saying her body doesn't have enough energy to heal her?"

"Her wounds are still healing quickly, which of course made taking the arrow out difficult," Clemmons grumbled, "she just isn't healing as fast as usual. Her body is playing catch up right now. Elli, sweetie, do you think you could lean forward for me?"

Coming around the bed with her stethoscope, Clemmons untied the back of Elli's nightgown as Tony helped his daughter sit up. Used to her check-ups, Elli breathed deeply without the older woman having to instruct her.

"Her lung is still healing, but it is better than yesterday, that's for sure. She should be fine to move around in two weeks, but until then she has to stay in bed," Clemmons braced herself for the objections she knew both Starks would have.

"But next week is," a couple coughs disrupted the child, "my birthday! I don't wanna stay in bed!"

"She doesn't have to stay here, right? Can I move her back to the tower?" Tony wanted his daughter as far away from the Avengers as soon as possible.

"She should stay put a couple days just to be safe. And I'm sorry Elli, but your lungs can't handle it, though, I'm sure everyone will be happy to have your party in your bedroom," both pouted slightly, their resemblance as clear as ever. Even their hair matched having been messed with sleep.

Clemmons smiled gently before leaving the room.

**boop**

Elli scowled at the ceiling, bored with the room she would be confined to for the next few days. Her daddy had left with her Papa when she had fallen asleep earlier and had yet to come back. It was boring now being able to do anything but lay there. Her throat felt better and she didn't cough as much as she did yesterday, but Dr. Clemmons still wouldn't let her get out of this stupid bed! In a fit of rebellion, Elli kicked her legs furiously under the covers while squeezing the Hulk Teddy Pepper had brought her from home. A snicker made her stop as she followed the sound to the air vent.

"Hello?"

No one answered.

**boopdaboop**

The next day Elli was alone again. This time her daddy had left her with a Starkpad to play games on, but she quickly grew tired of it. She was much more interested in the man who was in the vent. Now that she was aware of it, she couldn't help but notice each time the man returned to watch over her.

"I'm bored," she talked at the grate covering the vent and the grate refused to answer. Elli blew a raspberry at it, "come on! I know you're there!"

The grate remained silent.

"Fine, I'll talk to myself then! Bet I am better company," Clint had to hold his nose from laughing, she had sounded just like Stark right there. The girl kicked her legs a few times before reaching for a green Teddy bear that looked strangely like Banner. She bounced it on her lap before whispering something in its fuzzy green ear. She then held its embroidered mouth to her ear before nodding.

"I'm not supposed to talk to strangers so I'll introduce myself. I'm Elli, this is Hulkie," she held the bear up toward the vent, so it was supposed to be Banner, "Now you gotta tell me your name."

Clint remained silent but raised an eyebrow as the girl stared intently at the vent.

"I'll call you Venty then, cause you're in a vent. There, now we aren't strangers," Clint couldn't help the snort that escaped him at her obviously flawed logic. Elli could only grin at the tiny victory.

**bleh**

"Venty!" A soft whisper caused Clint stirred slightly before turning over in the nest he had created, "Venty! Wake up!"

Elli heard a snore erupt from the vent causing her to giggle slightly.

"VENTY!" Clint jumped, hitting his head on the top of the vent, and eruption of giggles coming from the tiny Stark floating outside the vent. His eyes widened as she peeked in at him.

"Hi!" His jaw hung open at the glowing child, before he pushed open the vent.

"You're supposed to be asleep! Not to mention out of your bed!" Elli gave him a lopsided grin that was missing her front tooth, she had lost it yesterday during lunch. He finally said something back! Grinning from ear to ear, she held out a single dollar bill.

"But I had to show you! Look! The Tooth Fairy left me money!" Clint's eyebrows shot up to his hairline, when had Stark come in here?

"…wow," Clint supposed it was amazing to a child, but he was kind of disappointed. He would've thought Stark would leave diamonds or something under his kid's pillow.

"Here!" She shoved the dollar into his chest, "I'm giving it to you."

"Kid," Clint tried to give it back to her but she evaded him easily, "I can't take this. You earned it…with your, uh, tooth."

"Yeah, but I want you to have it. I figure you're probably homeless since you're living in a vent." It was so genuine that Clint could only gape at the child before he burst into muffled laughter. The kid was probably right! There was no way Stark was going to let him stay in his tower after he had shot his daughter in the back.

Elli tilted her head and stared intently at Venty as he wheezed into his knees. After a few minutes he hopped down from the vent and landed softly on the floor. His hand hooked around her ankle bringing her into his arms. He held her gently as she dimmed, then tucked her back into her bed.

"Kid, life woulda been so much easier if you were a brat," Clint smiled fondly at Elli as her eyes fluttered close, his heart clenched slightly in regret. He would have loved to see her grow up, too bad after tomorrow, Tony would most likely never let any of the Avengers see her again.

**heh**

Early the next morning, Tony burst into the room with balloons and a giant stuffed bunny.

"Munchkin! Ready to go home?" Elli blinked sleepily at her daddy before nodding and going back under her covers. Seeing an opportunity for revenger, Tony dropped the bunny and let go of the balloons before tearing the blankets off of his daughter, laughing as she threw Hulkie at him. Scooping her up into his arms, she nuzzled her forehead into his neck, still desperately trying to sleep.

"Did the Tooth Fairy come?" Tony lifted the pillow expecting money to be there but saw nothing. Did it fall under the bed? About to crouch down and look, Tony stops as Elli mumbles a yes into his shirt.

"What'd she leave you?" Balancing her in one arm, Tony set about packing her toys into a duffle bag.

"A dollar," Elli yawned and lifted her head, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, "but I gave it to the homeless man living in the air vent."

Tony stopped packing to stare at his daughter and process what she just told him. She sneezed before looking up at him with pleading eyes.

"Can he come to my party?"

Clint had started to slowly back further into the ventilation system as soon as Elli had mentioned him. He paused as Tony narrowed his eyes at the vent.

"Shit."

**and done**

Better than yesterday right? I hope all your broken hearts are a little mended. Poor Clint needed a little love. Next update, I'll explain what Tony was up to and where the rest of the team was.

BTW, I caught like, six drowzees today :D


	14. Chapter 14

**I am back! Again! It was kind of difficult getting into the groove of this chapter so it took a little longer than I thought it would. It was the same thing as chapter 12…a lot of deleting and rewriting. I also kind of have this nasty cold that is throwing me off, (I just sneezed on my computer screen and am screaming internally. This cold won't go away and I'm sick of sniffling all day).**

 **IMPORTANT: So, I realized from a review I made a mistake (I can't find the person but thank you so much for saying something), and it turns out I accidently aged Elli a year too much haha. She is supposed to be turning six, so I went back in chapter 13 and changed it.**

 **Thanks to all my reviewers. I love reading your thoughts on the story. Also, to dbr: you are absolutely right. I have a sadistic heart which is why this chapter exists now. I hope it meets your expectations, I'll probably torture the Avengers a little more next chapter haha**

 **QueenofNetflix: I hope your head is alright, I was so concerned I got my act together and finished the chapter lol.**

 **Guest that wants to tie me to a chair: I loved your review (both of them?). They were quite enjoyable. Keep being you, guest.**

 **And thanks for those who added me to the communities they run. Totally awesome and appreciated.**

 **Alright enough chatter. Let's get on with it…**

 **I don't own the avengers or anything to do with Marvel.**

* * *

"Shit is right," Tony almost growls at the vent as he pulls his daughter closer to him. He is mostly annoyed with himself—he should've realized the archer was in the ventilation system, the man had been missing for the past few days. Coulson probably knew all along, the jackass.

Clint isn't sure if he should try to crawl away or sit still and wait for Stark to maim him.

"DADDY," Elli gasps as she gently slaps Tony's shoulder, breaking the tension easily, "you're not supposed to say that word!"

"Yes, yes," her daddy sighs, before plopping her down on the hospital bed, eyes still trained on the vent, "swearing is bad. Munchkin knows best."

Elli nods her head in satisfaction as Fury walks into the room with Coulson. Her stern gaze lights up in excitement as she floats over to her grandfather.

"Papa! I made a new friend! He's coming to my party," Releasing her powers, Elli falls into her Papa's waiting arms. He pretends to drop her before swooping her up into a tight hug, making her giggle with glee.

"I never said yes, young lady," Tony walked over and poked the white haired child on the nose before snapping a new bracelet on her wrist, her features instantly changing to match his. Clint can't help but watch with interest, the kid looked like a carbon copy of Stark now. Female and tiny, but extremely similar all the same. Elli gives her daddy the best puppy eyes she can muster as Coulson pulls the now dark brown mane into a somewhat tamed ponytail.

"New friend?" Fury raises his eyebrows at Tony before following the billionaire's eyes to the vent. The director makes a noise of understanding before having a silent conversation with the man he's come to see as a son.

"Elli, why don't you go with your Papa and decide what kind of cake you want?" Fury is already walking toward the door, ready to let Tony and Coulson handle the archer.

Forgetting her new friend for a moment, Elli's eyes light up at the thought of sugary goodness. She looks her Papa dead in the eye, her small hands on his shoulders.

"I want mint chocolate chip," Coulson laughs at the youngest Stark's face, determination shining through her golden eyes.

"That isn't cake, that is an ice cream," his voice is patient as Fury walks through the sliding door and out into the hallway.

"Make it a cake then!"

Tony actually cracks a smile as the glass door slides shut, cutting off their conversation. His daughter had an addiction. He and Coulson share a glance before turning back to the vent and the still frozen archer.

"Barton, I'm not talking to you while you're in a vent so you better get your ass out here," Tony finishes stuffing Hulkie into the duffel as Clint guiltily removes the vent cover and hops down. Rocking on his heels, the archer tries to avoid the billionaire's eyes.

"So, you sat in a vent for five days to spy on my kid?" Clint feels his face flush, Stark made him sound like a weirdo.

"I…I just," Barton ran a hand through his hair, trying not to squirm. He was grateful Stark wasn't blasting him with the Iron Man suit, but maybe that would've been more comfortable, "I just wanted to make sure she was alright. That I-I didn't cause too much damage—"

"You skewered her with an arrow," Tony was sitting now, legs crossed, in the chair Fury had brought the first night Elli had been injured. The memory of Tony sitting at his broken child's bedside made Clint pale along with the flinch the genius's words had brought.

"I-I'm so sorry," Stark was staring at him with no emotion traceable on his face, Coulson stood to his side as unreadable as ever, "I know that probably means absolutely nothing to you, but I am so very God damn sorry. I can't tell you how many times I wished I could take it back, or that I had even just hesitated on Cap's order. Not that I'm blaming Cap, I take full responsibility…I just need you to know how sorry I am Tony."

Both men said nothing in response, Stark only quirking an eyebrow causing Clint to try to swallow down the lump growing in his throat.

"And I know nothing I ever do will change what I did, but these last few days have been killing me. I shot my teammates kid, and God, I couldn't even begin to imagine what I would do in your position."

Clint looked everywhere but his teammate. He knew the man deserved to be looked in the eye, but he was sure that he might run out of the room if he did. The archer settled to look at the floor. Footsteps echoed in his ears until he was staring down at Stark's shoes.

"So I can't shoot Cooper then?" Clint's head shot up to see Tony smirking at his look of horror, "No eye for an eye, skewered kid for a skewered kid? I'm kidding of course, your kid would never recover as fast as mine and then he would miss her party."

"…What?" Barton felt his jaw drop as he looked between Stark's shit-eating grin and Coulson's calculated smile.

"Laura is a lovely woman, very nice on the phone. How old is Lila anyways? 5? 6? Elli's turning 6. Maybe the girls could have scheduled playdates," Tony seemed to be seriously contemplating this as he scrolled through his phone's calendar.

"You told him?!" Clint glares at Coulson, he had thought his handler would keep his secret to his grave.

"No, I didn't," the agent remains unaffected by Clint's glare, "Fury told him."

"Wha-why would Fury tell him?" All this time, Clint thought Fury hated Stark and here the man is telling the archer's deepest darkest secret to Tony like it's no big deal.

"To calm me down," Stark returned his phone to his back pocket before resting his hands on his hips, "he explained the whole secret 007 family thing and convinced me you would never hurt Elli on purpose. He figured you were wallowing in a puddle of guilt somewhere from causing what you fear the most. Plus, it wasn't really your call, so I can't blame you."

"Only Stark knows, Fury and I agreed to let you decide if you want to tell the others," of course Natasha already knew, Coulson was referring to Banner, Rogers, and Thor.

"…wow," Clint wasn't sure what to say, he felt like a few days ago he and Tony polar opposites, but now he realized they had a lot more in common than he originally thought. He felt a lot of regret thinking about the past year he had spent on a team with this man. If only he had been more open and trusting with his teammate, they might've avoided this situation.

"Don't go apologizing again," Tony glared at the sad puppy look on Clint's face, "I already forgave you, go beg Fury for forgiveness if you want to grovel to someone."

"Why would I apologize to Fury?" He would have to thank Fury for smoothing things over with Tony, but an apology didn't seem necessary.

"Well, you did shoot his grandbaby," Coulson laughs dryly before exiting the room.

"…Oh my God," Clint felt the panic rising in his stomach, Elli had called the man Papa multiple times, only now did the connection click, "Ooooohhhh my God."

"Yep, Fury has been Papa for a while now," Tony picked up the duffle of Elli's stuff and started strolling out the door, "He's a fantastic baker, makes the cake for the party every year."

"Oh my God I am going to die."

* * *

Natasha and Steve sat at the round table on the main deck. Banner had returned to the tower a few days prior at Stark's insistence. The man had wanted to disappear again—he was sure the team was finished, having injured a teammate's child—but, Stark had caught the genius before he could wander off. The doctor had apologized which Tony had brushed off immediately, after all the man hadn't even been there. He had probably been wandering in search of pants. During one of Pepper's visits, Tony had herded Bruce into her general direction, volunteering the shy man to be part of the red head's decorating team for the youngest Stark's party. Banner had never seen so many streamers in his life.

After failing to locate Loki, Thor returned to Asgard to inform the All-Father of the resident _Skīr-r_ and of Loki's interest in her. He had offered to take the _Skīr-r_ with him—which was met with much animosity from those who considered her family. He amended his offer to bringing back an Asgardian healer before Tony politely declined and informed the God that Elli had a personal doctor. Thor nodded despite not believing a Midguardian doctor being qualified to treat a _Skīr-r,_ he did not wish to upset the Man of Iron further. Promising to return soon, Thor called to Heimdall before being whisked away.

Natasha tapped at a tablet, glancing at the Captain every once in a while. For the past few days the man had been drowning in a sea of regret.

 _Tony's eyes are like ice, but Natasha wouldn't be surprised if the man started shooting heat beam out of his eyes at any minute. From the second the billionaire had walked into the room, a fight had been ready to break out between Captain America and Iron Man._

 _"Why didn't you tell us?" Even though Steve felt terrible for what had happened, he honestly felt that this whole thing could've been avoided if Stark trusted his team more._

 _"I saw no reason to," After the child had woken up after surgery, Coulson had practically dragged Tony from Elli's room. What the man had expected, Stark wasn't sure. He'd rather be with his daughter than his idiot teammates._

 _"But we are your team, you should have trusted us!" Tony felt a white heat rushing to his head, trust in Captain Fucking America to turn his daughter being shot by an arrow—on the man's own goddamn orders, he might add—to a lecture on how Tony is a poor teammate._

 _"Trust? You want to talk about goddamn trust, Rogers?" Tony was in the man's face now, practically snarling, "Since the moment we met, you have shown just how much you don't like me. Every single thing I say, every decision, is wrong to you. Now tell me, why should I trust Elli to you? When have you ever trusted me?"_

 _"How could I have known—"_

 _"What? That I'm not how the media portrays me? That I don't bring a woman home every night? That I'm not an alcoholic? There is no way you could have known any of that," they're both red faced now, Stark breathing a little heavy, "because you never bothered to get to know me. None of you cared to get to know me."_

 _There was a heavy silence after that, Rogers still visibly fuming but having nothing to say in response. Stark sighed as his coloring returned to normal._

 _"Elli is special, not just because of the Skīr-r thing," Tony dismisses the term Skīr-r with a wave of his hand, it meant nothing to him—Elli was just Elli. He takes a deep breath trying to calm himself, "Maybe I should have told the team, but seeing how you treated her, like a goddamn monster, I don't regret it. She isn't some mythical Asgardian legend, Rogers. She's my baby girl and I'm going to protect her no matter what."_

 _Steve has the decency to look somewhat ashamed, Natasha can't help but feel guilty herself. Stark looks tired and slightly dejected as he steps away from the Captain._

 _"You know what the worst part is?" Steve says nothing, just stares down Tony, "You were her hero. The person she looked up to. For weeks she has been talking about it, her birthday I mean—the theme of the goddamn party was supposed to be Captain Freaking America. She and Coulson had been trying to convince me to ask you to come."_

 _The billionaire can't help but laugh—out of frustration or disappointment, Natasha couldn't tell. He remembered earlier that day when Pepper had brought a mended Captain America doll, tight stitches barely noticeable in the neckline. Elli had shied away from her once favorite toy before ducking under the covers, refusing to talk to anyone until Pepper left with the doll._

 _"Now I think you're what she fears the most."_

Steve had been torturing himself since then. He wanted to go find Tony and apologize, but he was terrified to see the child he had hurt so badly. Today was the day Tony was going back to the tower. Steve hoped to see him before he left; he wasn't sure if he was still welcome in the man's home. He seriously doubted it.

Looking him over, he looked terrible. He hadn't shaved and had dark bags under his slightly bloodshot eyes. Natasha was sure that if he didn't have the super serum running through his veins, Steve would look a lot worse. Not wanting to be around his misery anymore, she got up and began walking toward the dining hall. It was on her way that she heard it, the voice she had heard in Fury's office before the fight with Loki. Unable to help herself, Natasha followed the voice until she spotted them.

"How about a chocolate cake with mint frosting," Fury was holding a dark haired child with chocolate colored eyes. It took her a moment to realize it was Eleanor Stark.

"And chocolate chips!" Fury chuckles as they continue down the hallway towards his office, Natasha following behind. It was surreal to hear the director laugh like that.

 _"And_ chocolate chips, of course," the most feared spy in the world stops to nuzzle noses with the little Stark, "Will you help me bake it, baby girl?"

"Of course Papa!" Natasha can't help but freeze as Fury blows a raspberry into the child's neck, causing squeal of laughter. The pair disappears into the director's office as the Black Widow comes to a terrifying realization.

They had shot Nick Fury's grandchild.

They were so dead.

 ********YEP********

 **Alright, so Tony doesn't hate everyone. That's good. Next chapter will be Elli's birthday party, with the Avengers fearing Fury's wrath haha. And don't worry, I promise Elli will eventually forgive Captain America. Pepper hasn't thrown out the Cap doll yet.**

 **I feel like my earlier chapters went at such a faster pace, that this kind of normal time progression is throwing me off. I mean technically 5 days has passed and Tony did a bunch of forgiving so it's ok?**

 **I decided to include Clint's family. I just think it'll be really cute for the kids to meet each other and Tony and Clint dadding out together.**

 **Update on my Pokemon Go travels, I caught a jigglypuff today at the grocery store. My life is complete, my childhood dreams fulfilled.**


	15. Chapter 15

**HELLO! I'm actually posting a chapter before 1am, it's a miracle. This chapter is extra long as an apology for all the waiting you guys have been doing lately. So, I've surpassed 400 followers which is just amazing and there were so many wonderful reviews. Ya'll make me so happy. I saw Suicide Squad btw. I'm a hardcore Marvel fan, but Batman was my first true love so i had to go see it. I honestly though Jared Leto was a fantastic joker, but the whole plot kind of threw me as it was definitely not what i was expecting. I think I'll have to watch it again before I decide if I like it or not, haha**

 **Anyways down to business...**

 ***kind of important. So I got a specific question about Elli's fear of Cap, and I thought I would clarify. ( I meant to do it at the end of last chapter and totally forgot)**

 **Demi-Fae** **: It's not that Elli knows Steve ordered her to be shot (although I wouldn't put it past her to somehow find out, haha), but more like an association thing. She had a pretty bad interaction with him right beforehand so her fears got blown out of proportion. Her hero kind of treated her like a monster so she is having mixed feelings right now and since she is six it's kind of hard for her to work through them at the moment. I still think she loves him deep down inside though!**

 **And a lot of you asked for Fury and Pepper to bring some Hell down on the avengers. It'll come eventually, and in subtle ways. MWAHAHA! Elli will also be having bonding time with all the avengers in future. Someone asked for Elli to braid Thor's hair and I just think that is fantastic. Also, aunty Natasha will definitely be a thing. Don't worry :)**

 **On one last note, I just wanted to let you all know that in the next few chapters there will be** **2!** **new main(ish) characters from the marvel universe being introduced. IceSnowQueen, you know who one them is** **;) ...even though I havent answered your PM yet (i need to work on that, sorry)**

 **As usual I don't own the avengers and/or Marvel**

 *****yep*****

Bruce sat alone in the Stark's living room having been led by Pepper to Tony's floor earlier that day. Without saying anything, she had sat him down on the couch, presenting him with bags of pastel colored balloons. He had stared at them before looking up at the C.E.O. questioningly.

"It's pretty self explanatory, doctor," with that said, Pepper turned on her heels before walking away.

Alone, Bruce allowed his eyes to wander over his teammate's home. Having never been invited to the floor before, it was painfully obvious that child lived there. The area was tidy, but little hints of the chaos a child brings had snuck their way into the home. A few stuffed animals laid across the couch, a Black Widow action figure sat on top of a Dr. Suess book. Crayons sat forgotten on the dining table.

Not one to usually snoop, but unable to help himself, Bruce stuffed a handful of the not yet inflated rubber into his pocket before strolling around the floor in curiosity.

He inspected the framed photographs first. Most were of the Stark child at varying ages, both white haired and dark haired. She smiled brightly in each one, no matter the age. Some were group shots with people Bruce vaguely recognized (he thinks the one's name is…Rhodey?) and others he knew immediately. The dog, Deedee, was in many as well. Coulson and Fury surprised him, but it made sense considering the cold gazes the two men had been throwing at the Avengers the past few days. They seemed to be close to the Stark family.

His eyes lingered the longest on a photo of Tony and Elli. Both were fast asleep, the elder Stark's arm curled around the child while Elli's hand rested over the arc reactor. Their hair had matching tousles, curled into strange angles from sleep. It looked like it belonged in a Nyquil commercial.

Finishing a balloon off, Bruce tied the end before dropping it to the floor and making his way toward the kitchen.

There were so many papers on the fridge that it was almost impossible to see the silver finish. Some were crayon drawings, others marker, a few painted. The artwork that was obviously a small child's depicted flowers, animals, the Avengers themselves, and a few 'family' portraits. Schoolwork was also hung up in honor, all being A+'s of course—this was Stark's daughter after all. Looking at the math test, he realized it was much more difficult than he would've thought appropriate for a soon-to-be six-year-old. It dawns on him quickly that Elli must've skipped a few grades.

He drops another balloon to the floor. Reaching into his pocket only to feel that its empty, Bruce gently kicks the balloons he has dropped back towards the couch to finish off the bag. There were around fifty balloons surrounding him and still five more bags waiting to be inflated. Sighing, the doctor decided to focus on the task Pepper had given him.

The setting sun cast an orange glow over Bruce's sprawled out form, the man utterly exhausted from having spent the past few hours blowing up some 300 balloons that now dusted the floor around him. He wheezed slightly—no amount of breathing exercises could have prepared him for the decorating force that was one Pepper Potts.

He felt as though he could take a nap when the elevator dinged alerting him to someone's arrival. Thinking it was Pepper coming to fetch him, the doctor sat up only to be greeted by a small group of people.

Pepper and Coulson walked in together, followed by Fury and Tony, the latter of whom was holding his daughter. Clint was the last one to exit the elevator, looking slightly nervous but smiling slightly at Elli as she hung over her daddy's shoulder, chattering at the archer.

"Brucie!" Slightly taken back by the warm greeting, Bruce only sits there as Tony practically trots to the couch. Elli whips her head around before her jaw slightly drops before trying to wiggle from her daddy's hold. The genius keeps a firm grip on his daughter, if only to tell Dr. Clemmons tomorrow that he tried to enforce 'bed rest'. Elli stretches out in one last attempt but only escapes when Tony lowers her gently to the couch. She scoots quickly towards him, getting so close that Bruce leans back slightly before her daddy gently drags Elli back a couple inches by her hips.

"Hi!" Elli extends a hand like her daddy taught her, the grin on her face growing impossibly larger when the shy middle age man in front of her hesitantly shakes it.

"…hi?"

"I'm Elli. Daddy says you like science!"

"I do," Bruce can only raise an eyebrow at Tony but the man just laughs at his face. The Stark child hums in approval.

"Science is the best…I watch the Hulk on T.V. sometimes. Papa says Hulk is angry and that's why he hits stuff," the brown curls bounce as she leans in again, speaking now in a whisper that everyone can still hear regardless, "but I think he is actually really sweet, he just has trouble showing it."

Bruce only blinks owlishly before suddenly the girl is throwing herself around him.

"Can you tell the Hulk thank you for me?" Her nose is in his neck as she trembles slightly causing him to return the hug.

"For what?"

"For catching my daddy." Bruce knows what she is referring to, he had watched the footage of the invasion afterwards and been amazed the Hulk had been so careful with the injured man. A warm, pleased feeling spreads in the back of his mind, startling the genius as the beast within him rumbles affectionately.

Before he can process what this means, the child has pulled from his grasp and is sliding off the couch. She moves toward the kitchen, before Fury scoops the girl up, chiding her slightly for walking despite her doctor's orders. She points towards a cabinet and Fury complies, lifting her so she can see the top shelf. When he lowers her, she is grasping two white mugs, waving her daddy over.

"Oh, right. Come on jolly green," Tony practically drags the doctor off the couch.

"I made these!" Elli thrusts a mug toward Clint, the archer hesitantly taking it, almost as though he is afraid to touch the child. Tony takes the other and hands it off to Bruce.

Bruce inspects it carefully, not being able to help the little amused smile that graces his lips. The mug had a glazed coating over drawing of the Hulk on one side, the green man grinning with a toothy smile and a speech bubble having the green drawing say _HULK SMASH!_ The other side roughly depicted himself and Tony, the two of them fist pounding in the air, a messily scrawled _Science Bros!_ beneath them.

"She made one for everyone a couple months ago when she found out you guys were moving in." Pepper explains as she pulls plain ones down for everyone else, Jarvis already brewing coffee.

"Yeah! A housewarming gift!"

"It's amazing kid. You're a little artist." A mini archer is on the side of Clint's mug, decked out in purple, replacing the black leather he usually wears in order to have some color. The drawing had released an arrow that was shooting around the curved edge of the mug. Clint allows Pepper to christen the new mug with coffee, declining her offer of sugar and cream.

"You didn't make me one?" Bruce's eyebrows raise and Clint flinches back at the mock scandalized tone Fury makes.

"Papa! You're not moving in!" Fury pouts at his granddaughter and God, does that look weird to Clint, before poking the girl in the side gently causing her to squeal. Clint takes a deep sip after blowing on the hot liquid, trying to calm his nerves.

"Actually pumpkin, you kind of trashed Papa's apartment so he is going to be staying here for a while." Elli lights up in excitement as Clint chokes on the coffee (almost dropping the mug), spitting some of it out as he is sent into a coughing fit. Coulson laughs as he pounds on the archer's back, the pour man wheezing pitifully.

Tony laughs as well before he notices the massive balloon mountain seeping towards the kitchen, slightly confused they weren't floating.

"Bruce, did you blow all of those up?"

"Yeah."

"Why didn't you use the helium tank Pepper brought?" Bruce's eyes widened as he looked at the balloons and then to Pepper, a deep breath reminding him of his aching lungs. The woman has the decency to look sheepish.

"I was feeling a little passive aggressive and Bruce was kind of the only Avenger here?" She shrugs before stealing Elli from Fury's arms, declaring it was bath time despite the little girl's protests. The group of men watched her go, Bruce and Clint gaping at her back while the rest smiled.

"Watch out Clint. I doubt you're going to escape her wrath," the archer nearly deflates as Coulson walks past the man to wait for his girlfriend on her floor.

 *****hehe*****

The next morning is Elli's birthday, Jarvis informing Bruce that there is breakfast being served upstairs as soon as the doctor's eyes flutter open. He groans before rolling out of bed and stumbling toward the elevator, too sleepy to change out of his pajama pants and t-shirt.

He blinks when the doors slide open at Tony's floor. The genius himself is flipping pancakes, the smell of bacon hitting Bruce's nose immediately. Elli sits on the island's counter, sipping out of an Iron Man sippy cup while handing her daddy blueberries to add to the pancakes.

"Morning sunshine!" Tony hands dummy a package of strawberries which the bot begins to chop up like salad. Both Starks turn to Bruce and he swears their smiles are too bright for him this early in the morning. He eyes Tony as the man begins to slice bananas, sneaking a few to the dog at his feet—once again, the genius was doing the opposite of what Bruce expected of him. The man looked so domestic.

"Happy Birthday," Bruce mumbles at Elli who beams in thanks before carefully levitating the mug with Hulk on the side over to where he had plopped down on a stool. Her golden eyes have a whitish-blue glow to them, the wisps of hair escaping her braid blowing in a non-existent breeze. He felt mildly surprised before the feeling passed, he was too tired to care at the strangeness of it all.

He took a deep breath in as the smell of the tea his nose—the rich spice of chai making him salivate slightly. Taking a long sip, he finally begins to wake up as Clint stumbles out of the elevator.

"What time is it?" The archer's hair is standing up on one end as he collapses onto the stool next to Bruce.

"7:30!" Elli tweets out happily as she finishes her orange juice. Her eyes glow again as the fridge opens, refilling her cup.

"Jesus Christ," Clint gratefully accepts his floating mug, not even blinking an eye at the glowing. He takes a deep sip before smiling at the little Stark, muttering a happy birthday to the munchkin.

The others trickle in slowly and much more gracefully than Clint and Bruce. Pepper is already dressed as well as Coulson. Fury is sporting moss green pajama pants and a black t-shirt, scooping Elli up to snuggle. Bruce is sure he has never seen the man out of his trench coat, much less showing so much emotion within 12 hours. When the food is ready, the group sets the table before sitting down.

Everyone digs in, devouring the fluffy pancakes and juicy bacon quickly. Bruce eats slowly, savoring the taste, while Clint wolfs the food down. This was so much better than the food at S.H.E.I.L.D., the man couldn't help his manners being a little shot. It isn't long before everyone was full, Clint jumping at the chance to help clean the dishes. Having hours until the party starts, Fury and Elli stay in the kitchen to bake while everyone else disperses to either finish decorating or get some work done before returning for the festivities.

The smell of the cake has Clint's mouth watering, Coulson having to stand guard while Elli and Fury go to change out of their pajamas. Pepper carries Elli back to the kitchen right before 2, which was when the other guests would start arriving. Her now dark brown hair has been tamed into two matching braids, her outfit consisting of a white dress with little cherries patterned across it. Tony had cooed and taken a ton of photos.

Natasha arrives first with the rest of the Bartons (Coulson and Clint had talked and agreed that if Tony could trust the Avengers with Elli—even if it was reluctantly, the archer could do the same). The Barton children warm up to Elli immediately and were more than willing to play games that don't require too much movement as Elli is still on her doctor's orders and her powers were subdued for the party.

Peter arrives later with his aunt and uncle, Happy following behind them, the couple looking around in awe at the superheroes gathered. It was a couple weeks beforehand that Elli's bracelet had malfunctioned on a play date, surprising the Parkers and Happy who had been acting as the little girl's 'dad.' Tony had arrived soon after, to explain and swear the family to secrecy. Of course he left some details out. They didn't know about her powers or prosthetic limbs, only her strange coloring and relation to Tony. The whole time Elli had had this smug grin on her face that made him sure she was responsible for the broken bracelet. He didn't bother to ask, knowing his daughter would feign innocence.

While Cooper had been happy to play with the girl's, Clint knew he was happy to meet a boy closer to his age. The four children play happily, the boys destroying a lego city with Elli's collection of action figures while the Stark child braided Lila's hair. Deedee curls around the girls, sniffing for leftover pizza. Giving up, the dog manages to lay across both of them, only lifting her head every once in a while to lick the children into a fit of giggles.

"She looks just like you," Laura comes up behind Tony and Bruce, a fond smile on her face as she observes her children.

"So I've been told," Tony snorts and greets the woman warmly as her husband joins them.

"Literally a carbon copy, Stark. I'm surprised no one's noticed," Clint eyes the cake again about to stick a finger in the frosting, resulting in his wife to slap him upside the head.

"People probably do notice, they just don't make the connection. Since Happy acts as her father in public, no one has any reason to try to connect her with Tony Stark," Bruce munches on some leftover pizza, pleased with the amount of delicious food he has had today.

Tony grunts in agreement, before the elevator dings. Rhodey and Dr. Clemmons step off, both looking slightly bristled, Rhodey actually shaking slightly in anger.

"Uncle Rhodey!" Elli sprints toward her godfather, tackling his legs and causing the man to stumble back a few steps. Letting out a small _oof_ , Rhodey lets his anger roll off of him as he smiles down at his goddaughter who was currently getting scolded by her doctor. The six-year-old only grins up at the aging doctor, causing the woman to let out a sigh and walk away, mumbling something about impossible Starks.

"Happy Birthday, Princess," Rhodey lifts the girl onto his hip, careful of his bandaged knuckles, before kissing her cheek.

"Uncle Rhodey, guess what," the army man doesn't even get a chance to guess before the child is spitting out the answer, "I've got lots of new friends!"

"I can see that," his dark brown eyes trail around the room, happy for his goddaughter's excitement but still wary of some of her new 'friends', "how about you go play with your new friends while I talk to your daddy? I'm staying the next few days so we can do something special tomorrow, yeah?"

Eyes lighting up in excitement, Elli nods her head before her godfather lets her down, excited to spend the day with him tomorrow. Rhodey runs a hand over his face before meeting Tony halfway between the kitchen and the elevator.

"You, sir, are very late," the men give each other a half-hearted hug, Rhodey still somewhat tense, "What's up, platypus? What's got your feathers ruffled?"

"It can wait until after the party, it's not that important." Tony eyes his friend, looking for any cracks in his mask before nodding and announcing it was time for cake. The billionaire can't help laughing at the cheers that come from the children and Clint.

 *****still going? Whhhhatttt?*****

Steve stood outside of Stark tower, running his fingers through his hair for what must have been the hundredth time. Everyone else on his team (except for Thor, who was on Asgard for who knows how much longer) was up on the top floor, celebrating the birthday of the little girl he had hurt. Rhodey and Dr. Clemmons had just gone inside, leaving the Captain alone with his bike.

 _"What're you doing here?" Steve whipped around to see a man he did not recognize stalking toward him, looking slightly less menacing with a bright pink present tucked under his arm. An older woman with greying brown hair stood behind him, her lips pursed in a stern frown. America's favorite hero had been debating whether he should go inside, unsure whether he would be welcome._

 _"I, uh, live here…Mr?" To be honest, Steve wasn't sure if he still lived here, but Tony had forgiven everyone else so he could only hope._

 _"James Rhodes, Tony's best friend and Elli's godfather, you fucking jackass," Steve blinked at the hostility, "goddamn, you should at least recognize me."_

 _"I'm sorry? Tony doesn't- "_

 _"So you only read the tabloids that detail Tony's sex life, huh? Didn't bother to read anything else? Couldn't care enough to read about the company, or his charity work?" Rhodey wasn't vain, nor a fan of the spotlight, but he knew his name and picture was published enough alongside Tony's that anyone with half a brain would know they were friends, "I've backed Tony up multiple times and you didn't even bother to fucking ask who was in the other set of armor?"_

 _Captain America sputters, a blush marring his features. He had not wanted to know anything about Tony before, having taken the first things he was told about the man to be what defined him, and now it was biting him in the ass._

 _"Jesus Christ, you really don't know anything about Tony, do you?"_

 _"Mr. Rogers, do you know who I am?" Dr. Clemmons had been fine with just watching, but now she was curious. How ignorant of Tony was this man?_

 _Steve really wanted to nod his head yes, but even after staring at the woman, scraping desperately for something to come to mine, he had to shake his head._

 _"I'm the Stark's personal doctor, Mr. Rogers," the woman actually sent him a somewhat pitying look, "I've been on the helicarrier multiple times to treat Tony's injuries. You even reprimanded him last time for acting too informal with me."_

 _He didn't even remember, he yelled at Tony so much, the lectures seemed to blend together. Putting his hand against his head, he groans in aggravation. How could he have been so ignorant? Why hadn't anyone said anything?_

 _Trapped in his thoughts, Steve doesn't even see Rhodey's fist as it connects with his chin, snapping his head back. Caressing his jaw, he surprised it had actually kind of hurt. He looks back at Rhodes to see the man practically growling as he cradled his hand._

 _"That's for hurting Elli," the man narrowed his eyes, before sighing, "God, what a joke. I can't believe I was once inspired by you. Joined the Goddamn army because I wanted to be like Captain freaking America. Ha."_

 _Rhodey shook his head before Clemmons started to lead him away, already fretting over his bleeding knuckles._

 _"Do us all a favor and don't come to the party. You've done enough damage, at least let them have this."_

Steve feels his throat swell; he hadn't meant for any of this to happen. Closing his eyes, he knows now he has made the right decision. He walks into the lobby of the tower, Jarvis letting him into the dark lobby.

"Hey Jarvis?"

"Rogers." Steve can't help but flinch at the A.I.'s tone. Even the goddamn tower was mad at him. Putting the box onto the counter, he takes a deep breath.

"Can you make sure this gets to Tony? And tell him I'm sorry?"

"I don't see why you can't do this yourself, Mr. Rogers." Jarvis's tone remains clipped, but not nearly as cold as before.

"I…I just don't think I can face Tony right now." The ceiling doesn't answer for a moment and Steve is worried he is going to have to call Natasha, which would make things a lot more difficult. A wave of relief washes over him as the A.I. responds in a somewhat gentler tone.

"Very well, Mr. Rogers."

"Thanks," Steve walks out the glass doors. Securing the backpack onto his shoulders, he throws his leg over the motorcycle taking one last look at Stark Tower before driving away.

***and end**** 

**So Steve is gonna be gone for the next chapter or two. But he will be back eventually! I'm pretty sure this is my longest chapter, so yay for you guys! I have a pretty good idea of what the next chapter will be so I hope to have it published soon.**

 **Please review guys! I love reading your thoughts!**


	16. Chapter 16

**Alright, it's been a while. I feel like I've been writing that last statement a lot lately, sorry. You know when you think life is going to go one way but then reality just smacks you in the face? Yeah, that has been me since August.**

 **Me: Woohoo! Second year of college, I can update on weekends, it'll be fine.**

 **My professors: LOL not today, fool. *assigns projects, papers, readings, home works, etc. first day and every day after that…**

 **Yup. Not to give excuses, but dear god, the amount of hours I've spent in the library the past two months. OK IM DONE. REAL QUICK THANKS TO YOU ALL! All of your reviews and follows and favorites have made me so happy. It makes my day whenever I get one of your wonderful reviews. Please continue being your wonderful selves :D**

 **Anyways, I'll try to answer some questions now.**

 **\- Coulson and Pepper are dating.**

 **\- Peter Parker is 9 since he didn't skip a grade and is in third with Elli. They may be romantic interests in the future but not till they are much older.**

 **-I'm trying to follow Avengers timeline, but I won't be including all of the movies. Thor movies happened but I'm not addressing them, Iron Man 3 is nonexistent as of right now. Harley is adorable so maybe later. Winter soldier events are taking place now.**

 **-THERE WILL BE NO CHILD SEX AND/OR PEDOPHILIA! If I gave anyone that impression with my writing, I am so very sorry. Every relationship between a child an adult is platonic and will remain that way. Elli's crush on Coulson was NOT sexual in anyway.**

 **That's all for now. Hopefully everything else will be answered in the chapter or after. If I missed something just PM me and I'll do my best to respond in a timely fashion.**

 **I still don't own the avengers or marvel in case you were wondering:**

* * *

Pepper's heels clicked against the tile as she made her way across the lab towards her employer and best friend. The man was perched on a stool, arms crossed with one hand curled around his jaw in thought. The cold, calculating glare that Tony usually only reserved for politicians and reporters was leveled on an innocent looking cardboard box sitting in the middle of cleared spot on his workbench.

"What'd that box ever do to you?" Pepper hands him the Starkpad she previously had tucked under her arm. Even though she was the CEO, the billionaire's signature was still required for certain projects.

"It showed up, that's what it did," Tony signs the virtual documents, not bothering to look too closely—the day Pepper betrayed him would be the day the world ended.

"Who's it from?" Pepper hums in satisfaction as she taps through the completed documents.

"Captain America," one of the redhead's perfectly sculpted eyebrows rose an inch, her eyes meeting Tony's, demanding an explanation, "after getting in that fight with Rhodey, he asked Jarvis to give it to me. Then he just rode off into the sunset on that stupid motorcycle of his, not bothering to talk to anyone first. Fury said he is in D.C. Finding himself or some other kind of bullshit."

Turning from the man, Pepper gently opens the box and peeks inside.

"He got Elli a birthday present?" Tony snorts and hands over a slightly crumpled piece of paper before standing. He couldn't stand sitting any longer as Pepper's eyes skimmed over the letter.

 _Tony-_

 _I know I've got a lot of apologizing to do, and I am not sure how to start. I've done wrong by you since the first day we met in the helicarier almost a year ago now. We should have got on better than we did. Heck, when I found out Howard had a son, I wanted so badly to get to know you. But I let rumors and gossip decide who you were before we even met, and that destroyed any relationship we could have had. I realize that now. The tension between the team was my fault—not yours. If I hadn't been so stubborn, none of this would have happened. I know I should be doing this in person, that I'm a coward for only leaving a letter, but I think we both need some time._

 _~Steve_

 _P.S. I found out from Coulson that Elli likes to draw, I'm sure she already has supplies but I wanted to get her something. Your kid is really special Tony; I hope one day I can make it up to her._

"Now isn't that just the biggest load of bullshit you have ever seen?" Tony was pacing in front of her now, a hand running repeatedly through his hair.

"Tony—"

"I mean for fucks sake; he is Captain America—"

"Tony."

"He should have the common decency to—"

" _Goddamnitall,_ Tony," Pepper pinches the bridge of her nose as Tony pivots on his heel once again.

"say this kind of mushy bull crap in person. Who does this? Who even writes goddamn letters anymore!?"

"Captain America, apparently," Pepper sighs as Tony scoffs.

"And what is this _'needing time_ ' bullshit? Everyone suddenly needs _time._ So what? Everyone is going to go on some soul finding journey or some other kind of shit?"

"Thor is on Asgard, Natasha is on a mission, and Clint is on vacation with his family. Hardly soul searching journeys. And Bruce is upstairs watching _House Hunters_."

Tony just waves her off before fiddling with the knee joint on his workbench.

"You shouldn't feel guilty, Tony."

"I do not feel _guilty_ ," Tony squawks as he rounds on Pepper.

"It's not your fault."

"Of course it's not my fault," Tony snatches the letter and gestures wildly at it, sneering, "Captain _freaking_ America even wrote it, saying it wasn't my fault. So it must be true, right?"

Pepper stared blankly at Tony as the man huffed his way back to a normal breathing pattern, shoulders relaxing into a drooped fashion.

"Sir, ma'am, not to interrupt, however, I felt I should inform you that the young miss and Master Rhodes have just arrived and are heading up now," Tony thanks the A.I. before dropping the box to the floor and shoving it under the workbench with his foot. Pepper gives him a look of disapproval but says nothing as the glass doors the lab _swoosh_ open and Elli skips inside, Rhodey following closely behind, his vision slightly impaired by the amount of stuffed animals he was carrying.

"How was the carnival?" Scooping up his daughter, Tony tries to forget the box for awhile.

"I beat Uncle Rhodey at skee ball!" Elli threw her arms in air as Rhodey dumped all the carnival toys to the floor.

"She definitely cheated," he is half serious, half joking, because there is no way a six-year-old was that good at skee ball.

"Did not!" Elli sticks her tongue out; which Pepper is quick to scold. The child deflates slightly in her daddy's arms, but her smile is still plastered on her face. Eventually, Rhodey and Pepper excuse themselves, one to shower, the other to go run a company, leaving the two Starks alone.

Setting Elli on one of the metal tables, Tony takes out the tape measure to check her legs.

"Did you cheat?" Elli points her left foot and holds the leg straight out, her daddy looking up as she snickers. Tony couldn't really blame her, Rhodey was way too competitive for a man his age. The elder Stark grins back, before gently flicking her on the nose, "Don't tease your Uncle Rhodey too much, kiddo."

"Okay, daddy," switching legs, Elli watches as her daddy furrows his eyebrows together.

"Sorry, munchkin. It's almost half an inch," the little girl can't help but pout as her good mood escapes her entirely. Tony feels a guilty pang in his heart, she had just recovered from the arrow too.

"I'll call Dr. Clemmons and we can do it next week, yeah?" Receiving a nod, Tony helps Elli down from the table before leading her upstairs for dinner.

* * *

****ALWAYS DELETING MY LINES DANGIT******

"What happened," Alexander Pierce grabs the collar of the nearest scientist, dragging her up from the ground to be eye level with him. The woman's head rolls back as she finally loses consciousness, blood dripping slowly from her body. Dropping her in disgust, Pierce stalks over to a man hunched over on his knees.

"I'll say it again. What happened here," shaking the scientist slightly, the man manages to focus before his eyes dart to the destroyed tank in the middle of the room.

"She…she…there was a bright light…and then she…"

Pierce shakes the man again, droplets of blood from the man's head wound mixing with the slightly green fluid that had once kept the subject suspended in the glass container.

" _Where is she?_ " The balding scientist turns his head back to Pierce, fear etched into his eyes.

"Gone."

Throwing the man down, he kicks the scientist in the side before turning his gaze to the rest of the laboratory. The light fixtures that had survived dangled from thin wires, sparking electricity everywhere. Tables were overturned, equipment broken and unsalvageable, dead (or almost there) scientists thrown all over the room.

It was just like six years ago.

"Sir, what is your order."

"Call the Winter Soldier, tell him he has a new target, an old friend." Pierce growled at the empty tank, this time she wouldn't be coming back alive.

*****STAY LINE BREAK STAY**********

* * *

Thor landed on the balcony, observing his teammates inside. The small group was gathered at the dining table, eating a midguardian dish that Darcy had informed him was called _spaghetti and meatballs_. Banner sat at one end of the table sipping tea, Nick Fury, the Son of Coul, and Lady Pepper on either side. The Man of Iron sat next to his daughter, laughing at something that was said. The furry beast called Deedee sat at the _Skīr-r's_ feet, tiny hands sneaking meatballs when the adults weren't looking. It was so childlike; he could almost forget that silver haired being held as much power as the all-father himself.

The God of Thunder's frown grew deeper when the genius's brown eyes turned to him in surprise. The surprise quickly melted into a warm welcoming, waving the blonde in and attracting the attention of the others at the table. Sighing, Thor made his way through the glass doors, guilt almost making him turn around and storm back to Asgard to plead his teammate's case once again. But Thor knew nothing would change the all-father's mind.

The Man of Iron was not going to be happy.

* * *

 **I know, I know. I'm actually a terrible person, leaving all these little cliffhangers all over the place. I wanted to make the chapter longer, but college. I'll try to update this weekend, if not, an update will be up halfway through October after my midterms. I'll address**

 **So, anyways, I was going to have a special guest character this chapter but, unfortunately, he is getting bumped back a chapter so he can have a bigger part in the long run. And I'm not talking about Bucky ;)**

 **Just a little hint, in case you're insanely curious, he is a mercenary… :D**

 **Thanks for reading guys! Sorry again about the long wait, life gets in the way sometimes. And as always, please review and tell me your thoughts!**


	17. Chapter 17

**HEY GUYS! I missed my goal but not by much :) I hope you are all doing well! Enjoy this nice long chapter and please leave me reviews! They're highly motivating :D**

 **No promises on the next time I will be able to update. It may be before Christmas, it may be after depending on my school work.**

 **As always, I do not own Marvel or the Avengers**

* * *

"What? Did you think I was gonna say: Oh yes! _Please!_ _Please,_ take my daughter Thor! Wisk her off to your magic fucking rainbow bridge just cuz the All-fucking-father ordered it?"

"Well, no…but if you agree, it will make this task much easier," the blonde god rubbed his thumbs together, looking only slightly sheepish for the message he was delivering.

"NO I WILL NOT AGREE! Are you crazy? No Thor. No fucking way," Bruce can see the steam rising from Tony's ears as his face turns a charming shade of sunset red.

"Man of Iron, I know it may seem unfair, but the All-Father is the only being in existence that knows the needs of her kind. He can help her."

"We don't need his help, we're doing fine on our own," Tony gritted his teeth, thankful he sent Elli down to the lab with the promise he would follow soon. He didn't need All-dick's wisdom to raise his daughter—he was doing just fine before this, thank you very much.

"I agree that the All-Father shouldn't be interfering with Elli's life. Tony is more than capable of taking care of his daughter," Pepper crossed her arms and leaned on one hip, Coulson standing as support next to her, the two acting as a wall between the two heroes.

"I have no doubt of the Man of Iron's abilities, however, the child will only grow in power. She will not know how to keep them hidden," Thor could only hope to persuade them, he didn't want to watch the child be ripped from her father's arms.

"We will help her learn how. Stark did it before, we can do it again," Fury stood on the other side of Thor, leaving no room for argument in his voice.

"She'll become too powerful, you won't be able to control her."

" _Control her?_ Are you freaking kidding me!?" The God of Thunder could only sigh as Tony's face deepened to a dark, blood red.

"She is a _Skīr-r—"_ Thor was cut off as the billionaire's fist hit the table with a resounding crack.

"SHE IS MY DAUGHTER! NO ONE ELSE KNOWS WHAT SHE NEEDS MORE THAN I DO!" Tony lunged at the God of Thunder, ignoring the way the blonde giant towered over him, "I TOOK CARE OF HER EVEN WHEN I DIDN'T KNOW HOW TO TAKE CARE OF MYSELF! I CHANGED MYSELF FOR HER, EVERYTHING I HAVE DONE IN THE PAST SIX YEARS HAS BEEN FOR HER! I DON'T NEED THE GOD DAMN ALL-FATHER TO TEACH ME HOW TO TAKE CARE OF HER! I ALREADY KNOW, THOR!"

The genius breathed heavily as Thor looked blankly down at him.

"Tony…your hand…" A trail of blood trickled down three of Tony's fingers, the knuckles beginning to bruise under the cuts. His eyes glance down before looking back at the glass table top, a spider web crack spreading out from where his fist had slammed down.

"Bruce can you help me with this," Tony cradles his hand as he walks toward the elevator, not bothering to wait for an answer.

"Stark, we are not done here."

"No, we are done here. Either leave it be or get out of my house, Thor, because there is no way in hell that I am letting Elli go," the door closes leaving the group in an awkward silence.

* * *

Elli taps her pencil against her nose as Ms. Buck's sub drones on about division and multiplication—third grade math is _so_ boring. Kicking her feet and turning her head to look out the window, the six-year-old is grateful for her seat in the back corner. It was so much better than her old seat. She had been in the first row due to her small size and age—that didn't last very long. Her constant fidgeting was a distraction and her prime spot was wasted on her as she usually ignored the current lesson in favor of coloring instead. Her grades didn't reflect her inability to pay attention so Ms. Buck was all too happy to move the young genius to the back. The only downside was that Peter still sat in the front, separating them by five rows of desks.

Leaning on her prosthetic hand, Elli reaches her flesh one into her desk to run her fingers over the smooth wood of the colored pencils she had yet to use. They sat in a metal box, a plastic mold holding each perfectly sharpened color in place. Higher quality then she had ever been given before she didn't dare use them for two reasons. 1: They were too perfect to use. 2: Her daddy didn't know she had them—she found them the night before in the lab. The box had been filled with art supplies and an Iron Man plushie with a note from Captain America himself. After reading the letter, Elli had carefully folded it, gently tucking it under the mold of the pencil box. Then she had taken the pencils and plushie up to her room, hiding the case in her backpack and setting Iron Man on her pillow.

Her daddy had kindly fetched her Captain America doll when she asked for it at bedtime. Tucked between Iron Man and Captain America, Elli had slept peacefully—undisturbed by nightmares for the first time since she had been shot by the arrow.

"Elli…Hogan?" Elli's head snaps back to the front as the sub reads her name off of the seating chart, the woman smiling warmly as she gets the six-year-old's attention, pointing at the math problem she had just written on the board "Can you solve this for me?"

"Twenty-seven," the woman's smile gets even bigger as Elli turned back to the window.

* * *

Happy was late, which was unusual but not unheard of with New York's traffic. Peter's aunt had offered to take Elli (Ms. Parker being one of the adults listed for the young Stark's pickup) but the substitute had insisted she could wait with the girl.

"What are you drawing?" Elli glances up as the substitute crouches down next to her desk, a perfectly manicured hand resting on the back of the chair.

"The Avengers," picking up a different crayon, Elli begins to color Clint's suit a deep purple. One day he would listen to her and change his costume—black was Natasha's color.

"Ah, so you're a fan then?" The woman leans in closer, tucking her golden hair behind her ear. She holds in a chuckle at the sight of the Hulk riding into battle on a pink unicorn.

"Mmhm," Elli picks up the red to fill in Thor's cape.

"You like to color?" Nodding, Elli finishes the drawing and then tucks it into her backpack to give to her daddy later. Taking out another sheet of paper, the little genius turns to the woman holding a crayon in her direction.

"Wanna color with me?" The woman tenses, looking over the tiny child in front of her, finally getting a close look at her face. Carefully, the substitute takes the crayon from Elli, smiling to her ears as she does so.

"I would love to, Elli."

* * *

Watching out the window, the woman waves to Elli as she walks out the school gates with her "father". Taking a deep breath, the woman looks down at the piece of paper in her hands before hugging it to her chest, gently as to not crinkle it.

Gathering her things, she waves her hand and steps into a circle of light. After being deposited in her living room, she runs her fingers through her hair—the blonde shimmering as it lightens to a snow white. Blinking her eyes, the pale blue she sported throughout the day changes to a deep gold. Smiling, she walks over to the fridge, taping up the portrait Elli had made of her.

* * *

"We have a problem." Fury storms into the lab causing Tony to raise an eyebrow, not bothering to turn away from his current project.

"You mean the Thor problem?"

"No, not the Thor problem."

"The Steve problem then?" Tony leans in closely as he messes with the knee joint.

"Close," Fury throws a file down on the bench, waiting for Tony to finish.

"His name is the Winter Soldier, formerly known as Bucky Barnes before Hydra kidnapped and brainwashed him," Choking on air, Tony swivels on his stool to look at the director of S.H.I.E.L.D.

"Bucky Barnes is alive?" Fury nods as Tony flips through the file, stopping at the picture they had gotten in D.C. "Why isn't he old?"

"Hydra experimented on him," Fury states blandly, but Tony can here the anger in his voice.

"He…he has a metal arm," Tony studies it closer as he compares it to Elli's sitting on the bench in front of him.

"You're going to help Romanoff and Rogers locate him." It wasn't often that Fury ordered him rather than ask—which meant the man was going to push until Tony did what he wanted. Not this time though, the genius would stand firm.

"Not gonna happen," Tony snaps the file shut and turns back to work on Elli's new leg, snorting at the thought of working with Rogers again when the man didn't even have the decency to show his face and give a proper apology.

"I'm not asking, Tony," Fury ignores Tony rolling his eyes, "He is dangerous and on the streets of New York."

"I don't see why you need my help."

"Please, Tony, I tried but we can't do it without you," whipping around, Tony nearly falls off of the stool at the image of Captain Freaking America standing in the doorway to his lab, begging for his help.

"Gah! Jarvis! What the hell!?" Tony barks at the ceiling, annoyed that the A.I. hadn't informed him of Steve's arrival.

"You never took Mr. Rogers off of the residents list, sir. I have no protocols to keep him from entering the building."

"Tony, please, I know you probably hate me, but I have to find him. He's the only family I got left."

Tony glares at the Captain, unwilling to help despite the puppy dog look that could rival Elli's. His glare only breaks as the genius flinches at he sound of the tap of little feet coming down the stairs.

"Daddy! Daddy, I—" the now white haired child stops at the door, looking up as Captain America turns around. Both have looks of fear on their face, terrified of the feelings of the other. Tony glares at Fury as the man observes with a slight smirk.

"Elli," Steve gulps as he looks into the Stark's golden eyes for the first time. They were so innocent—he couldn't believe he ever thought the child was dangerous.

"Hi," her voice is small and timid, it's so unlike Elli it makes Tony a little sick.

"Hi...uh…Happy Birthday."

"My birthday was last week."

"Yeah, I know...I'm sorry, Elli," Steve kneels down in front of the six-year-old.

"You were right," the white haired child smiles causing Steve to relax, "Iron Man is my favorite super hero. You can be my second though."

"I would be honored, little lady," Allowing himself to smile at her, he flinches when she throws her arms around him, but quickly returns the hug.

"It's nice to meet you, Captain America."

"It's nice to meet you, too, Miss Stark."

"You totally planned that," Tony leans back on the bench, watching as his daughter forgives Captain America, slightly annoyed because he wasn't quite ready to forgive the hero himself.

"I did no such thing," the man smirks, happy with the results.

"Pepper says she got that from me, but she definitely learned it from you," Tony thinks back to Elli's 'broken' bracelet and the Parker's surprised faces.

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Right," snorting and shaking his head, the genius returns his attention to the knee he was previously working on as Elli drags Steve up the stairs, "I'll help, but you owe me."

"Don't forget to come up for dinner."

"Yeah, yeah," Tony waves off Fury as the director walks out of the lab.

* * *

The man was clad in black and red, passed out on a moth-eaten armchair, fast food, pizza, and chimichangas littering the room. His snores were distorted by the half eaten slice of pizza hanging out of his mouth. A mouse crawls at the base of the chair, nibbling at a taco shell.

 _Let's have some fun, this beat is sick_

 _I wanna take a ride on your disco stick_

 _Let's have some fun, this beat-_

"Deadpool," The mercenary pulls the pizza out of his mouth and pulls his mask down as a man chatters on the phone. The white eyes of his mask widen at the price.

"You got yourself a deal," snapping the phone shut, Wade Wilson hops out of the chair and starts gathering his favorite guns, "Looks like I'll get to meet Sam Jackson after all."

* * *

XD


	18. Chapter 18

**HAPPY NEW YEAR! I hope everyone's holidays were pleasant and your 2017s are off to a great start. I finally got my act together and decided to give you guys an extra long chapter for the wait. My new years resolution is to try to update somewhat regularly but we'll see how this semester goes XD**

 **QUICK NOTE: I've gotten a couple reviews asking if/why/when Tony and Pepper are or aren't together getting together at this point. In case it wasn't clear, they will not be romantically involved and are just best friends/sibling relationship kind of thing. Pepper is dating Coulson and has been for a good portion of this fic. Also, I previously noted that I'm leaning towards a Tony/Bucky pairing and I am still planning on that. I think it will be fun to write and will be cute to have Bucky and Elli be prosthetic buddies. And, as I said before, it won't be a huge feature of the story, as Elli is the star of this fic, but it will be present and affect some (most) of the movie plot lines as I work my way through them in both this story and possible future ones.**

 **Anyways, I don't own Avengers, Disney, or any Marvel characters/products.**

* * *

A soft groan came from the couch as Tony heated some soup on the stove. Jarvis responded to the distressed sound by making the television blink to life, _Big Hero 6'_ s opening scene automatically playing. A mumbled, incoherent _thank you_ makes Tony smile as he ladles the chicken noodle soup into two bowls. He grabs their matching tray tables as he makes his way to the couch.

"Alright baby girl, let's sit up so you can eat your soup," Tony leans the tables against the couch and puts the soup on the coffee table. Elli glares at him, her face flushed with a fever as she pulls her blanket up to her nose before curling her arm back around the golden retriever laying with her. Deedee doesn't seem to mind as she twists back to give the child another lick before going back to her nap.

Tony sighs at his daughter before plopping down next to her on the couch. A wave of guilt runs through him as he runs his fingers through her hair, neither of them liked these type of days. Her golden eyes close at his touch as she leans into the soothing touch.

"I know it hurts baby, but you have to eat something and then I'll leave you alone."

A loud groan is followed by the silver haired child blowing a halfhearted raspberry in defiance, but she finally complies after some prodding and lifts her flesh arm for help. Tony stands up, gesturing at Deedee to get off the couch before tossing the fluffy blanket off his daughter. She hisses in annoyance at both her sources of warmth leaving her but doesn't protest further.

As gently as possible, her daddy lifts her by her armpits before resettling her on the couch, careful to limit contact with the three limbs that were missing their prosthetic attachments at the moment. Elli rubs her nose and tries to smile at her daddy, but it comes out as a painful grimace. Tony gives a warm smile in return, rewrapping the previously discarded blanket around her. After setting up the tray tables and soup, the father-daughter pair settle in next to each other.

"Do you need any help?" Tony eyes his daughter carefully while he slurps loudly, causing the first authentic smile of the day.

"No, I got it," it is slow going, but Elli manages to finish most of the soup before it starts to get cold. Tony can't help but be grateful at her appetite—it was usually absent during this whole process.

"Finished?" Elli nods as she rubs her eyes, tired from her full stomach and the stress of having her limbs removed for height adjustments. She lifts both her stump and whole arm as her daddy picks her up to resettle her in a laying position with pillows supporting her head and the ports at the end of her legs. Sure, she could just fall over, but any pressure on her limbs made her hiss in pain. Her daddy was good at steering clear of her aches and pains.

"Can Deedee come back up on the couch?"

"Sure baby," Tony taps the spot in front Elli, indicating to the retriever that she was allowed up. After the two were comfortably cuddling, Tony covers them with a blanket once again, finally leaving his daughter in peace.

The elevator dings just as Tony has finished washing the dishes. He tosses a dish towel at Fury as he sets about drying and putting the bowls away.

"I'll be in the lab, if you need anything, don't look at me like that, seriously like anything you might need, just tell Jarvis and he'll let me know. Her medicine is due at 4, I'll come back up and make dinner at 5:30."

"Alright, Tony." Fury pulls off his signature trench coat and hangs it off of the back of one of the bar stools before following Tony to the back of the couch.

"Jarvis is monitoring her vitals, so he should let me know if her fever gets too high or if there is anything wrong with her ports…"

Tony looks up from watching his daughter to check to see if the Director was listening. Fury just raised his eyebrows at the billionaire—wondering if seeing former playboy be taken over taken by fatherhood would ever cease to amaze him.

"…but if you could check yourself every once in awhile—no offence Jarvis…"

"None taken, sir."

"…it's just that an extra pair of eyes wouldn't hurt."

"No problem, Tony." The genius gave his sort of father figure a half smile before leading the man back to the kitchen.

"I made her a snack—its in the fridge—if she wants it. She probably won't, but, ya know, just in case. There are juice boxes if she gets thirsty but if she is really feeling unwell, I have marshmallows and hot chocolate mix in the cupboard above the sink, but don't make her more than 16oz—you know how she is, less self control than me when it comes to sugar…"

"If I can keep you from hacking into Hammer Industries and blasting ACDC 24/7, I'm sure I can keep Elli from consuming too much sugar," the spy snorts as he inspects the hot chocolate packaging. The billionaire grimaces at Fury's reference—he hadn't kept Tony from doing shit.

"…yeah, ha…anyways," Tony picks up a pink duffle and hands it to Fury, "here are her favorite toys, she already has the Iron Man and Captain plush with her on the couch. There's a change of clothes in there if she sweats too much or if something spills…and uh, in case you forget anything, here is a list of what I just said."

"You do realize that she is staying here and you're only going a couple floors down, right? A bag is completely unnecessary." Fury lifts the bag up with a snort before dropping it on the kitchen table. Tony pouts before gathering his things to head down to the lab.

"Well I just want you to have everything…" Tony mumbles causing Fury to throw his hands up in surrender.

"I promise, we'll be fine."

* * *

Ms. Buck's substitute sat at her desk grading spelling quizzes as the class had a silent reading period. It was her third week teaching in place of Ms. Buck. Everyday when the woman failed to show to work, the school asked for a sub for _just one more day_. Honestly, the school should just hire her full-time already—its not like Ms. Buck was ever going to come back.

She both loved and hated this fake life she had created for herself. It was wonderful seeing Elli everyday and she actually didn't mind being a teacher. Sure, none of the kids were nearly as brilliant as Elli (though Peter came close on occasion), but they fascinated her to no end. She was always curious about Midguardians; they were similar to the Asgardians—greedy and violent—but much weaker in the physical sense. It was this weakness that made her prefer the Midguardians—they were more…innovative. They're lives were so short, yet they managed to change the world they lived in every other decade. The goblets and swords of the Asgardians did tend to bore after a millennium or two.

The Midguardians also never fail to amuse her. Prior to her… _imprisonment…_ she had enjoyed integrating into their societies, taking a different appearance each time. The last time had been her favorite, it was the first time a Midguardian had managed to get close to her. He had been so strange she couldn't keep her interest under control. They had talked often—he had taught her many things…

 _"Why did you fight them? They're so much bigger than you, it's no surprise you lost." She leaned against the brick wall, arms crossed, observing the boy curled into himself on the ground. He was bleeding and bruises were already blossoming on the skin she could see. She almost felt pity for him when the area around his left eye began to darken to a blackish-purple. She scrunched her nose—a human habit she had picked up—when the broken boy started to chuckle._

 _"Well, what kind of guy would I be," he got on his hands and knees before coughing roughly, blood splatting on the already soaked pavement beneath him, "if I let them attack a pretty lady like you?"_

 _"One that isn't half dead," she uncrossed her arms as she walked to stand in front of him. "You should have left it be, anyone else would have."_

 _"You don't seem to have a lot of faith in humanity," he managed to prop himself up, his back resting against the red brick. His head hung as he tried to get his breathing under control._

 _"It's nothing personal, it's just the way those of your kind are. Humans are selfish and weak, self-preservation should have kept you from interfering," she crossed her arms once again, fighting the urge to inspect the man before her. She was itching to know what made him different, "though you do seem to fall out of the norm."_

 _The young man looked up with raised eyebrows, his sparkling blue eyes crinkling into a laugh._

 _"You say that like you aren't human," he tilts his head as he continued to look up at her, she remained stoic but paused in her thoughts when he smiles at her. Crouching to his level, she studies him for a moment before responding._

 _"And if I'm not?"_

 _"Then I'll just have to teach you just what it means to be human," the man lifted the hand that is less bloody out towards her but she only stared until he laughed aloud again, startling her "First Lesson: The Handshake. This is what we humans do when greet each other. And usually, if it the first time, we introduce ourselves. For example," he grabbed one of her hands from where it was resting on her knee, before making both go up and down in an exaggerated fashion, "Steve Rogers, nice to meet you."_

 _"I know what a handshake is," she scowled and rolled her eyes but didn't pull away, "Avalyn, but I go by Ava."_

 _"Got a last name, Ava?"_

 _"Not today, Mr. Rogers," she stood and pulled Steve to his feet, "So, do you save all damsels in distress?"_

 _"Call me Steve, please. And it is my policy to try and save anyone in distress, ma'am." They walked out of the alleyway together, Steve wiping his bloody nose with an old handkerchief. Steve couldn't help but be pleased that he had a couple inches on her—it didn't happen often, him being taller than anyone over the age of fourteen._

 _"Only if you don't call me ma'am," she muttered as her nose wrinkled again when a passerby blew spoke into their faces, she would never understand why Midguardians would destroy their lungs like that. She glanced at Steve as he wheezed and coughed pitifully. "That is a strange policy to have considering how frail you are, isn't it more trouble than it's worth?"_

 _Steve turns to look at her, wide eyed at her bluntness. Sure, people always tell him he is too weak to do much, but this is different. She seemed genuinely curious as to why he tries so hard._

 _"I just don't like bullies, ma'am. Someone's gotta stand up for the little guy," he puffs up his chest, ignoring the ache in his ribs, "and if that person is me, so be it."_

 _"You're a strange human, Steve Rogers." She hums in amusement before dragging him into the local clinic, promising to pay his medical bills._

They had become very close friends, him being her first human one. They had met weekly, exchanging stories and dreams over coffee. Their conversations had been what she most looked forward to, but not anymore. The last time she had saw him was right before he enlisted, and right after that she had been put in a lab… but it no longer mattered, she had Elli now and the man was probably long dead.

"Ms. Lane?" Ava's head snapped up from the paper she had been grading for the last ten minutes.

"Yes, Peter?"

"It's 2:30." Her disguised pale blue eyes glanced up at the clock.

"So it is," she stood up, getting the attention of the rest of her students, "Alright, class time to go home, let's line up."

She smiled brightly at the third graders, ignoring the pain from remembering Steve Rogers.

* * *

"Hey," Bruce walks into the lab with a steaming mug of chamomile, greeting Tony before heading to his own work station. The billionaire only grunts in response before giving all his attention to the piece of metal in front of him.

It is silent between them, much different than what Bruce thought sharing a lab with the man would be like. The usual chatter box that was Tony Stark was a quiet worker, only speaking to Jarvis or Bruce when he needed to bounce ideas. And, normally, Bruce was fine with this arrangement. Today, however, was a slow day for the scientist. He had just wrapped up a large project the day before and wasn't quite in the mood to tackle a new one.

"Are those prosthetics?"

Tony nearly fell of his chair in surprise. Despite his alter ego's lack of subtlety, the nuclear physicist could be silent as Natasha at time. The doctor gave an apologetic shrug at Tony's half-hearted glare. The eldest Stark lets out a sigh before putting his screw driver down. He was almost finished, he just had to rewire Elli's left leg. The other two limbs had been finished before Bruce had come down.

"Yeah, they needed an upgrade," swiveling in his seat, Tony turns to face his fellow scientist while wiping the oil from his hands.

"I didn't realize you worked on them yourself," Bruce picks up the lone arm, not noticing its creator flinch and then relax. Looking at the hand, the scientist can't help smiling at the pink polish on the faux nails. He was always impressed by how life-like Tony had made the mechanical limbs and was even more impressed now that he had finally seen some in person.

"They're so small, are they a child's?"

"Yeah," Tony and Bruce share a sad smile as the arm is placed back on the bench. Looking at the limbs, Bruce can't help the surprise at seeing the matching polish on the toes.

"Are they all for the same kid?" A nod makes Bruce's heart clench, "How old?"

"Turned six a month ago," Tony almost laughs at Bruce's face as he starts to put it together.

The overprotective father had been debating about letting the team know about Elli's limbs; he was still wary of most of them. The only ones in the tower right now were Steve, Natasha, and Bruce. Clint was part time now that the team knew about his family—after nearly killing Tony's daughter, he realized he needed to spend more time with his own children. Despite Tony's forgiveness, the two fathers were skittish around each other. It was agreed that some distance would be best at the moment. The archer still came by the tower every once in awhile, but was mostly assigned to undercover missions whenever he wasn't at the farm.

It was peaceful the last couple of weeks. There were few emergency calls, allowing the team to relax and focus on other missions. He and Steve were working together to find Bucky, but their relationship was still strained despite the Captain's best efforts. It obviously had never been great to begin with and neither man was sure they would ever be the best of friends, but Tony had to admit that Steve was definitely trying. It also helped that the Captain was being supportive of the Thor problem as well.

Their resident demigod had left shortly after delivering the All-Father's "orders" _._ The God hadn't contacted them since, making Tony worry that some Asgardian-Asshat would try to kidnap his baby girl. Multiple security measures had been added to the Stark's floor as well as another Avenger being in the tower at all times. Most often times it was Bruce, the Hulk being the most likely to be able take down an Asgardian threat. The others pitched in on the security detail as well, everyone being happy to spend extra time with Elli. When she was free, Natasha kept eyes on the outside and surrounding areas of Elli's school while Coulson had replaced the principle—who had just come into a very luxurious and early retirement. The round the clock security and support had put the father somewhat at ease as well as helped the team bond. Tony was obviously still furious with Thor—the big blonde idiot had tried to threaten baby—but he had to admit that the threat had helped the team become much closer in the past few weeks. Something that normally would have taken months, maybe even years in other circumstances. It was probably why he was comfortable letting Bruce know more about his and Elli's lives. Hopefully the other scientist could act as an extra pair of eyes when they reattached the prosthetics tomorrow.

"They're Elli's…?" Bruce's hand hovered over the faux skin-he couldn't believe he was just holding the youngest Stark's arm with such indifference a moment before. Sure, he had realized that they were someone's replacement limbs, but knowing who they belonged too made it much more personal.

"They're Elli's," Tony confirms, "Her legs and arm were…removed before I got custody of her, and she's had the prosthetics since was two."

The team was somewhat filled in on Elli's origins, but much of it was left out. As time went on, bits and pieces of the Starks' lives were shared with the different members of the team.

"Damn."

Tony nearly chokes as he hears Bruce swear for the first time in probably forever before laughing at the poor man. He really seemed at a loss for words.

"It isn't so bad. Of course every parent wants their kid to be healthy and whole," Tony turns back to the unfinished leg, "and I was definitely angry about it for a long time, but it hasn't changed anything _really._ And yeah, we've had a few extra challenges," it is Bruce's turn to snort this time, a _few_ extra challenges… _right,_ "but these prosthetics _are_ Elli _._ She inspired me to create something that was bigger than just the two of us. Project Eleanor has changed so many people's lives."

Bruce can only smile at the pride in Tony's voice. Despite him being the one to create the limbs, the genius seemed to want to give his daughter all of the credit. The scientist listened intently to the billionaire's explanation of inner workings of the prosthetics before leaving the oldest Stark to work. Having agreed to help out the next day, Bruce headed to the elevator. He could give the littlest Stark some company while her daddy finished repairing her leg.

* * *

 **This chapter was little more fluffy then I intended but I am quite happy with it. I think I introduced a lot but also progressed the plot quite a bit. Bucky and Deadpool should come up again next chapter as I have plans for both of them. Obviously, Bucky will be here for the long run, but Deadpool will most likely just be a guest for the next few sections.**

 **Anyways, I will try my best to update in the next week or so. Please follow, favorite, and review. I would love to hear any opinions on Ava's character. Like Eleanor, I played with the meaning a little bit as Ava is another form of Eve and Avalyn means beautiful breath of life (according to google haha). Both meanings will make more sense in upcoming chapters.**

 **SECOND QUICK NOTE: Elli's prosthetics will be a big feature this and next chapter. I tried to mix and match details from other characters who have similar features. If you were wondering from who, I based my ideas off of Bucky (of course), Edward Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist (god I loved that anime when I was younger), Cyborg from Teen Titans and DC comics, and Will Smith's arm in iRobot (quality movie btw, I recommend it). I obviously don't own any of these characters or their designs.**


	19. Chapter 19

**Let's be honest, my new year resolutions died before I even made them. Sorry guys.**

* * *

"Do I _really_ have to?" Elli hung from Bruce's neck like a monkey, despite her only having one arm on the moment. The scientist tried to pull the younger Stark off but was failing miserably. She wove around his body like he was a jungle gym, her eyes glowing a slight blue whenever his hands got too close.

"Don't you want to go back to school?" Tony's back faces the struggling duo as he puts the finishing touches on his daughter's arm.

"Nope," a few giggles escape the girl as Bruce sighs in frustration.

"Don't you want to see your friends?"

"Nuh-uh," Elli pops up over Bruce's shoulder, making the man grunt in surprise.

"Not even Peter?" Tony screws on the forearm plate leaving the faux skin off to the side. Elli pauses for a moment on Bruce's head.

"…Peter can come over here?"

"He could, but I still think you need to put your arm back on," swiveling on his stool, Tony grins at his pouting daughter. Seeing his opportunity, Bruce quickly drops to the floor and lays on his back. With no where to go, the ethereal child is caught in his arms.

"Gotcha," the mild mannered scientist smirked in triumph before attacking the little girl with tickles. Squeals rang through the lab before Tony hooked his daughter around the waist, saving her from the gamma scientist's attack. A few laughs were still escaping her as she is set on the work bench, a silence washing over the room.

"Ready?" Kneeling in front of his baby girl, Tony gripped her only hand.

The golden orbs disappeared from view as Elli squeezed her eyes shut. She hated this part the most but she also knew that there was no getting out of it—and she did miss having her legs, it made getting around the tower easier. Taking a deep breath, she bobbed her head up and down.

"There's my brave girl," Tony kissed his daughter's head as he squeezed her flesh hand tightly, "remember to relax your shoulder."

Another small nod was followed by a death grip around Tony's middle fingers. The two breathed deeply together, following the mini lesson Bruce had on meditation earlier that morning. The grip on his hand was still strong, but the rest of her body visibly drooped into a relaxed state making the billionaire sigh in relief—loose muscles made the nerves much more receptive to the connection. Rubbing his thumb over the back of her hand, the genius nodded to Bruce who had already finished the wiring.

Wasting no time and having been shown how to do it beforehand, Bruce pushed the two ports together, careful not to snag any wires. The resulting click was quickly followed by a muffled scream, the silver haired child grinding her teeth together as her shoulder felt like it was lit on fire. A protective growl responded to the cry, causing Tony to glance up at the doctor. Despite being warned of the pain the limbs cause when reattached, the gamma scientist had to take a few calming breaths to keep himself from going green.

Tears streamed down her face as the younger Stark sniffled. Taking a shaky breath, she smiled softly up at her daddy, assuring him that she was alright. The elder Stark returned the look with one of pride with a hint of remorse, wiping tears from her face. No child should be that used to pain.

"Want to take a break?"

"Nope," popping the _p_ and taking a few more deep breaths, Elli flexed her metal fingers as her powers helped her nerves recover in seconds. There was still a dull pain, but that would be gone in a couple of hours, "Can we do both legs at the same time?"

"Whatever you want, Princess," Tony stood up to go get her legs from the bench.

"Go ahead and blow sweetie," Bruce handed Elli a tissue and put a mug of hot chocolate next to her thigh. Throwing the tissue in the trash can Bruce offered, Elli's eyes were still a little watery but at least she could breath a little better now.

Tony had just been about to start connecting the wires between the ports as the door slammed open, Steve storming in with Natasha following behind.

"Eleanor Maria Stark, why're there polka—" The war hero stopped as he took notice of the rest of the room, the spy behind him almost bumping into his back, stopping just in time due her quick reflexes. The elder Stark couldn't help but groan and glare at the ceiling.

"Jarvis! Does _do not let anyone into the lab,_ ring any bells?! A basic security system would do a better job than you! Hell, even a deadbolt would!"

"My apologies, Sir." The dry tone makes Elli giggle, the A.I. seemed to do whatever he wanted these days. Her daddy would never give up Jarvis though, no matter how much he misbehaved. Besides, she may have also encouraged Jarvis to ignore the order, but she would never admit to that.

"Ugh," Tony rubbed his head before plopping the two legs next to Elli, "can this wait, we're sort of in the middle of something here."

Natasha moved around the mass in front of her, annoyed that the Captain had stopped. When her eyes landed on Elli, she felt her eyes widen slightly before softening on the six-year-old's cheeky smile.

" _Zvyozdochka_ , what kind of mischief have you been up to?" The woman sauntered over the still smiling child, an air of playfulness surrounding them both. Tony was grateful for the woman's outward indifference to the fact that his daughter was currently missing half her limbs and had been obviously crying.

"I don't know what you're talking about," if she had legs, Elli would be kicking them back and forth in a nonchalantly.

"So you don't know why Steve's shield has new decorations?" A single eyebrow was raised in a _don't even try to lie to me_ kind of way. Tony blinked in surprise, the youngest Stark had been immobile and under constant supervision for the past few days. When and how she had managed to pull her latest shenanigan off was beyond him. Bruce could only snort as the smirk grew.

"No idea, but I bet it looks amazing. A single star in the middle is kind of boring, dontcha think?" Elli leaned back on her hands, her eyes laughing with mischief.

Natasha just hummed in agreement, allowing the child this one before giving a meaningful look to Stark and proceeding to drag the speechless Steve Rogers out the room.

**LINE**

"Explain."

Tony jumped three feet in the air, nearly losing the whole pot of coffee as the super spy appeared behind him, the super soldier a few feet behind her as well. He glared before getting two more mugs from the cupboard. Elli and Bruce were on the couch, both dozing to the news cast.

"Could you not give me a heart attack? For once?" The two guests sat down at the counter as Tony poured the coffee.

"No. Start talking." Rolling his eyes, he handed the two a Stark pad and watched their reaction to the video that played. He saw confusion, anger, sadness, and then anger once again before the two looked up, questions ready to burst from both of them.

"Who was that?" Steve handed the tablet back over, all his willpower focused on not crushing it.

"No idea. All I know is that they left Elli and a note saying telling me to take care of her," popping a blueberry into his mouth, Tony accepted the tablet and pulled up Elli's previously locked baby photos. Steve awed at the cuteness but Natasha wasn't to be distracted.

"Have you ever tried to find out?"

"Once, at the beginning. But whoever left her either didn't want her or was in such deep shit that they were desperate to leave her with me. I didn't exactly have the best reputation back then—still don't," Natasha snorted and Steve blushed in embarrassment at the reminder of his previous impression of Stark, "so I figured it was best to leave it alone."

"Really?" A perfect eyebrow arched in question.

"Really."

"So if this person was in," Natasha raised both hands before doing the gesture of quotations, causing Tony to nearly spit out his coffee, " _deep shit,_ aren't you worried someone might come looking for Elli?"

"Nat," recovering from the choking episode, Tony leaned on the counter, "it is my experience that if you go looking for trouble, trouble finds you. And I'm not risking Elli for the weird wizard guy, even if he or she may have saved her."

"But—"

"Nope." Natasha could only sigh before returning to her floor, leaving Steve and Tony behind. The two sat in silence, Steve rubbing the handle of the mug while Tony proceeded to down his second cup—no wonder the man was always so jittery. The Captain turned to watch the news cast talk about the Avengers latest endeavor.

"So," Steve snapped his head up, still a little weary of Tony despite having been working together the past couple of weeks, "want to do me a favor?"

* * *

Ava sat on the bench at the edge of the playground with the last of her pupils that were waiting to be picked up. All of the other teachers had left for the day, feeling it was fine to leave the new girl in charge of the stragglers. Not that Ava minded, she had nothing better to do.

It was surprisingly warm out today so she gave in when the last remaining students asked to play outside. The little trio she had noticed on her second day teaching had been reduced to a duo the past few days of Elli's absence. She couldn't help but watch with a reminiscent smile as Eugene and Peter played with a tennis ball together.

Eugene was like a mini Bucky, charming and athletic but just a hint of smugness. He was often trying to impress the little ladies in her class, but often picked on others while doing so. She did hope that he grew out of that—he could be quite the young man if he did. Not for Elli, though, Ava thought with a quiet laugh. No, it seemed that the mother and daughter had the same taste in men. The shy, scrawny boy that was Peter Parker reminded her of a lot of Steve. They both had this sense of goodness to them that seemed to stay strong despite all the challenges the world liked to hurl their way. Ava couldn't help but wonder if the three would remain friends in the future. She was so wrapped up in her thoughts, she hadn't even noticed the man approaching her.

"Excuse me, ma'am," Ava whipped around, startled at the familiar voice, "I'm, uh, here to pick up Peter."

Ava stared at the muscular giant in front of her. It was his voice and his face, but her Steve was a toothpick and would catch a cold at even the thought of an autumn breeze. This man looked like he could take on a hurricane.

"Uh…Ma'am?" Ava blinked.

"Right, could I get your name please," Ava reached for her clipboard, scrunching her nose in thought. She flips to the pick-up log where she had written down a name earlier after Mrs. Parker had called. She missed the look the man gave her.

"Steve Ro-uh…uh, Hogan. I'm Steve Hogan. I'm Elli's uncle," the man rubbed the back of his neck, before extending his hand to shake. Ava ignored the hand.

"You sure about that Mr. Hogan?" Ava felt her a heat in her stomach grow, there was no way he was here. This had to be a trick. Maybe Hydra had already found her and wanted to torture her a bit before trying to drag her back. That was stupid, though. She was just being paranoid.

"Yes, ma'am. And call me Steve, please," he awkwardly drew his hand back when it became apparent that she wasn't going to shake it.

"Only if you don't call me ma'am," she scowled before waving to Mrs. Thompson with a pleasant, elementary school teacher grin, "you're clear to pick up Peter, May Parker called in earlier this afternoon."

Both watched as Peter retreated to the swings after being left by his friend, not having noticed Steve yet. Said man was staring at the teacher in front of him, confusion and sadness swelling in his chest. Some of her features were different, but the woman in front of him looked just like the woman he had fallen for but had never had the chance to love. But there was no way she was here; it had been seventy years. His Ava was dead; she had died before he had even gone under the ice.

"Will Elli be back in school soon?" Steve blinked before swallowing tears he had forgotten he had.

"Uh, yeah she should be back tomorrow." Nodding, the woman stood up to gather her things, calling to Peter as she did so.

"Well Steve Hogan, it's been a pleasure, but I need to go," Steve nodded and stuck his hand out again, a playful smirk on his face.

"You know, usually you introduce yourself to someone when you've just met. Maybe even greet them by shaking their hand," Ava rolled her eyes, annoyed at the man and how much he reminded her of _him._

"Ava, and I know what a…" the golden haired beauty trailed off as she stared at something behind the super soldier's back.

"Wait, did you just say your name is Ava?"

"Get down," the woman rests a hand on his chest, making Steve realize how tiny she is.

"What?"

"Actually, scratch that. Get Peter and leave. Now," the woman scooped Peter up with surprising ease and placed him in Steve's arms.

"Why? What's wrong?"

"Just go, Steve."

"Please just talk to me," but Ava was no longer listening as she started towards the school. Steve followed behind her, shifting Peter in his arms. He jumped and curled his body around Peter as a series of gunshots went off.

"Alright Eve. Time to be a good little science experiment and come home!" A man perched on top of a trophy shelf, clad in a red suit with two swords strapped to his back.

"Are you crazy? There is a child here!" Ava practically growled, not sure whether to take her anger out on Steve for not listening to her or on the guy in red.

"Well, maybe," the merc blew on his smoking gun, "but the kid's fine. Cap is bullet proof. I think. That might be another boyscout. I always get the big guys in blue mixed up."

"Ms. Lane, I'm scared." Ava cupped the boy's cheek, kissing him on the forehead.

"I know Peter, but I need you to be brave for a few minutes more, O.K.? Close your eyes and cover your ears, everything is going to be fine," Ava glared at the man beside her, "Leave. Now."

"I can't just leave you here."

"Do you not see the nine-year-old in your arms? The nine-year-old that you're responsible for?!"

"She's right pussy cat," the red clad mercenary dropped his gun before slapping both hands on his face, "Just think of the children!"

Steve blinked at the strange man before yelping inn surprise as Ava suddenly shoved him to the ground. He watched as a metal hand wrapped around her neck, lifting her tiny body up.

"Bucky?!"

"Yo! Sugar pop! That is my target, stay away!" Deadpool drew two more guns out, practically growling at the Winter Soldier.

"I _really, really_ do not have the patience for this," Steve's jaw dropped even further as Ava started to glow before sending out a force of energy that sent the two men after her flying in different directions. A being made of pure light stood in front of Steve pulsing every few seconds as if trying to catch her breath. She kneeled down next Steve and Peter, tendrils of energy flowing around her ethereal head.

"Wha-"

"Time for you to go," a swirling pool of light surrounded Peter and Steve, engulfing them.

* * *

 **Tried my best with Deadpool, he is fun but kind of hard.**

 **No promises on when the next chapter will be out. I have heavy work load this semester so updates won't be regular till May most likely.**

 **hehe XD**


	20. Chapter 20

**Surprise! A chapter! Thanks to everyone who comments, follows, and favorites. I read each and every review and they make me so happy. Eventually I will finish this and I think I might either clean it up and do a rewrite or write a sequel with later Marvel movies or a prequel with the first Captain America movie. But that probs wont be for a long time lol.**

 **Sorry for being a spaz, anyways I'm guessing everyone else is as traumatized by infinity war as me?**

Elli sat at the end of the couch, her prosthetics draped over her daddy's legs as he checked some wires in her right ankle. She pouted as she sipped on a juice box, intent on giving the older Stark the coldest shoulder she could muster. A small chuckle escaped the mechanic as he poked his daughter's cheek, causing a half-hearted glare to be cast his way.

"Aw, come on baby girl, it was kind of funny." His daughter only blew a raspberry at him before turning her attention back to the television. Tony turned to his science buddy looking for support, "Bruce wasn't it kind of funny?"

The brunette glanced from the other side of couch, taking notice of the side eye the six-year-old was giving him. The scientist shrugged as he tapped his fingers on the armrest.

"I'm not getting involved."

Tony sighed and tightened another bolt, semi-regretting the events from ten minutes prior. He had left his daughter earlier that morning to finish her movie, the little girl eventually giving into sleep after a long morning of prosthetic adjustments. After having dosed for a couple hours, Elli had gotten up to get juice only for her right leg to give out from under her, causing the sleepy child to face plant with a large thump that made Bruce jump out of his seat in concern. The elder Stark had cackled from the kitchen, only to stop when the stool he was on started glowing and proceeded to dump him onto the floor. In his defense, it was quite funny and Elli obviously wasn't hurt, well except her bruised ego.

Glancing again at his daughter, he placed the screwdriver down before poking her again, this time in the stomach.

"Come on, please forgive me?" She squirmed slightly as she tried not to smile, his poking getting more frequent and turning into a full on tickle attack, "pleeaasssee?"

A giggle escaped the younger Stark as she tried to escape. Bruce just laughed at the two and stood up in order to escape being caught in the crossfire. Tony picked up his daughter before spinning her upside down and tickling her even more.

"Daddy stop," the white haired child wheezed as she laughed some more, "I'm going to end up breaking you again!"

"Not until you forgive me!" He tossed her up, making Elli laugh as she put her arms around his neck.

"Okay," Tony pretends to drop his daughter, making her squeal in surprise and tighten her grip, "just promise you won't laugh next time."

"It's a promise kiddo," he deposits her on the ground making sure her legs can hold her up, "Now how 'bout you go and get Deedee and we can go on a walk?"

"Okay!"

Tony walked back to the couch to turn off the television as his daughter went off to find her furry companion.

"Want to come Jolly Green?" Tony met Bruce's eyes as he picked up the now empty juice box.

"I think I'll take a rain check this time," the scientist paused, "What did Elli mean by break you?"

"Ah, yeah," the billionaire ran a hand through his hair, "Remember when I had that cast last year? The tickle monster and metal limbs don't always mix so well. It was definitely my fault but Elli's kind of sensitive about that so don't mention it."

"I remember Steve yelled at you about that," Bruce furrowed his eyebrows, annoyed at himself and his teammates for yet another reminder of how they had been unfair to the Iron Avenger.

"Yeah, well, Steve yelled about a lot of things," Tony shrugged and gave a half smile.

"Still Tony, we weren't fair to you."

"I caused a lot of misunderstandings keeping Elli a secret. There's no point on bringing up each one now, it's in the past."

"Tony that's not-"

"Brucie-Bear, can we just," the genius sighs as he runs a hand through his hair, "put a pause on this conversation."

"It needs to be addressed, Tony. There is still a lot of tension on the team because of it."

"Look, I'm sorry I'm causing tension," Tony waves his hand in the air as he picks up Deedee's leash from the counter, "I'll try to make it less awkward."

"That isn't what I meant."

"Yeah, it is. I'm still the center of the problems on the team."

"Jesus, Tony-"

A swirling vortex open over them and drops one Steve Rogers onto the Stark's coffee table, effectively cracking it in half. The super soldier hops up immediately, still cradling Peter tightly to his chest.

"Why is it that my coffee table is always being destroyed? Why can't swirling blue portals drop people on the couch for once?"

"Bruce…take Peter, I have to go." A trembling nine-year-old is pushed into the scientist's arms as Steve strides toward the elevator.

"Hold up, you wanna explain what that was first?" Tony grabs the blonde by the shoulder spinning him around.

"Ava, I've got to go," the super soldier has a dazed look about him and is breathing heavy, which is strange for Tony as he doesn't think he has ever seen the man even slightly winded.

"Yeah, that explained a lot." Steve blinks as he is steered towards a chair, "Wanna try again? Who is Ava?"

"My girl," Steve lets Tony guide him into a chair.

"You have a girl? Like a girlfriend? I thought Captain America was a virgin."

"TONY," Bruce comes up behind the genius having checked over Peter. Elli had returned to the room with Deedee and was sitting with the young boy on the couch.

"What? He's supposed to be America's chaste golden boy from the conservative 40s. From what I heard from my dad he didn't even get to second base with Aunt Peggy."

"What's second base?"

"Something you'll never be doing sweetie," Tony turns to Bruce who is now kneeling in front of Steve shining a pen light in his eyes, "what is wrong with him?"

"Not sure, his pupils are slightly dilated but I think the serum is helping him recover quickly. His eyes are starting focus already." Steve blinks again and gets Bruce to take the light away from him.

"Ava is my girl from before the serum," the blonde stands up and has to steady himself on the back of the chair, "she is supposed to be dead."

"That seems to be a growing trend in your life, is she a brainwashed assassin as well?"

"No but Bucky was trying to kill her when she sent me and Pete through that portal." The two scientists blink.

"Wow your life is complicated."

"I need your help Tony; I can't lose her again," Steve gags a little, he doesn't remember ever being this nauseous since the serum. Tony sighs.

"Pumpkin, can you take care of Peter while I go save Steve's friend?"

"Yep!" The younger Stark has already covered the boy in multiple blankets and was handing him a full glass of orange juice.

"That's my girl," Tony smirks and turns back to his teammate, "Alright big guy, where are they at?"

"Elli's school."

"What?!"

"She's Elli and Peter's teacher."

"WHAT?!"

* * *

**line***

Ava closed the portal quickly as a glowing bullet flew past her. She whipped around as three more followed.

"Alright Alisha Keys, how bout you make this easy and extinguish yourself."

Tendrils of light whip around the ethereal being's head as the building begins to shake. The Winter Soldier dashes forward only to be blown back into a row of lockers.

"Hard way it is then," the mercenary reloads before dodging an energy blast.

Elli and Peter sat on the couch watching the news. The little Stark was sure her daddy would be on the screen any minute but for now it was just a frazzled news anchor standing outside the school.

"Following reports of gunfire at Midtown Elementary, authorities have released that there is what appears to be a fight between three super powered beings is taking place inside of the school. Students have already been dismissed for the day but it is not known if anyone is still inside the building. For now, police have created a barricade and are waiting for the Avenger's response team. Reports indicate that Captain America and Iron Man are on their way-"

A large explosion makes the anchor squeal before recomposing himself.

"Why are those people trying to hurt Ms. Lane?" Deedee rested her head between the children's laps and relished in the gentle pets they both were giving her. Bruce had gone down to the lab to see if he could get in contact with Fury, leaving Jarvis in charge of the three.

"I don't know. I hope she is okay."

* * *

 __**line***

 _"So you're the little lady that has got Stevie all worked up," Bucky easily dodged Steve's fist as he strolled up to the blonde sitting on the park bench, his most charming grin ready and arm extended, "Steve said you were good looking but I got to say, I wasn't expecting you to be such a pretty dame."_

 _Ava looked up from her novel, a single eyebrow raised as she glanced back and forth between the two men. Steve's eyes seemed nervous as he stood awkwardly to the side of his best friend. Her eyes finally rested on the extended hand which she pointedly chose to ignore._

 _"He a friend of yours?" A wave of relief washed over Steve as Ava scoffed at Bucky's charms, his best friend awkwardly chuckled and took his hand back._

 _"Ah, um I'm not sure if Steve has told you about me," the brunette shuffled on his feet._

 _"Just enough to make me forgive that atrocious entrance," she closes her book and adjusts her sunhat, "want to try again?"_

 _"Bucky Barnes, nice to meet you. Steve mentions you a lot," this time Bucky allows Steve's weak punch to land, causing Ava to laugh and dissolve the remaining tension._

 _"Avalyn, but you can call me Ava. Steve mentions you often as well," the blonde grins as she finally takes Bucky's hand._

 _"Got a last name, Ava?" Steve laughs and answers for her._

 _"Not today, Mr. Barnes."_

* * *

**line***

"Barnes I need you to listen to me," Ava ducked as a metal arm swung at her. The arm came down again, this time she caught the assassin's wrist, "I don't want to hurt you."

"Don't think he can hear you Sunshine," Wade leans back and begins the wait for his arms to grow back, dark and brooding had ripped them off earlier.

The Asset gripped his target's forearm in his metal grasp as he felt the charge heating up. Before she could break free he released the charge, the same cold look in his eyes as she screamed in pain. He held Ava up as her glowing form began to dim and her legs gave out from underneath her.

"Bucky…" the metal hand moved to her throat as the built in weaponry specifically designed for Ava continued to electrocute her, "please…"

Black dots are entering Ava's vision as she brings up a glowing hand to the assassin's temple. A surge of energy knocks him out causing both of them to fall to the floor, the Winter Soldier pinning the _Skīr-r_ beneath him. Ava laughs as she wraps her arm around her former friend's head.

"If only Steve could see us now."

"He will be seeing you, in like two minutes. Flying is so much faster than motorcycle but not all of us can be as cool as me." Ava looks up to see Iron Man standing above her, Deadpool already thrown over his shoulder fireman style.

"You're definitely no Colossus but I guess your shiny metal butt will have to do," Tony dropped the mercenary with a thud as Captain America's motorcycle skidded to the front steps of the school.

S.H.E.I.L.D. agents quickly flood the doors and soon Bucky is being lifted off of Ava and put on a stretcher. She can barely keep her eyes open as she is carried out, her head leaning against a muscular chest.

* * *

 __**line***

 _"What're you thinking about so intently over there?" Ava tilts her head in his direction, her golden curls bouncing in the sea breeze. They sat underneath a large umbrella on a blanket Ava had brought with her. Bucky and the dame he had brought with him were splashing around in the water but Steve's fair skin making it impossible for him to stay out in the sun too long._

 _"I want to enlist, but I keep getting rejected" Steve feels his heart flutter as he meets her molten gold eyes, "Bucky keeps telling me to stop trying already. Says I don't need to be on the front lines to make a difference."_

 _"He's not wrong," she rests her hand over his, "just because you're not on the front lines doesn't make you less. You can still help in other ways."_

 _"I don't want a factory job; I can't just sit over here when others are risking their lives! I don't have a right to do any less than them." A little bit of guilt washes over him as he watches as she scrunches her nose. He feels her thumb run back and forth over his knuckles._

 _"Steve, what is this really about?" He looks away, choosing to watch Bucky in the water instead._

 _"It's not about anything, it's just something I gotta do," her other hand cups his face and turns his head back to look at her._

 _"You never did know when to quit, Mr. Rogers," a small smirk graces her lips, making Steve blush slightly, "but that is what I like most about you."_

 _"You mean it's not my dashing good looks that got you hooked?" A goofy grin crosses his face as she throws her head back laughing._

 _"I guess they played a small part," she leans in and kisses him. Every touch from Ava was like electricity under his skin, but kissing her always felt like magic. A shiver of disappointment runs down his spine as she pulls back, "Just promise you'll always come back to me."_

 _"Of course, but the war might last a long time, when I get back I want you to be my girl," he rested his hand on her knee, running his thumb over the fabric of her sundress, "are you willing to wait for me?"_

 _"Always. I've got all the time in the world to wait for you, Steve Rogers."_


	21. Chapter 21

**Hey ya'll. i had some free time and was feeling inspired so here's another chapter.**

* * *

 _"I don't see what the problem is. You're about to be the last eligible man in New York. You know, there's three and a half million women here," Bucky leads Steve through the crowd, trying to spot the girls._

 _"Well, I'm fine settling for just the one," Bucky rolls his eyes but regards his friend fondly. Steve followed blindly while keeping his head down. The shorter man wanted to be supportive of Bucky's last night but he couldn't hide his own disappointment of being left behind._

 _"Good thing I took care of that," Steve bumped into the now Sergeant's back as the man stopped to wave._

 _"Hey, Bucky!" Peering around Bucky's back, Steve spotted Connie and a positively unenthused Ava. The blonde woman leaned against the wall with her arms crossed, watching the girl she was with bounce up and down with much more energy than was necessary. Steve wondered whether Connie had not noticed she had already gotten their attention or if she just didn't care._

 _"What did you tell her about me?" Steve met Ava's eyes and felt a warmth wash over him as her scowled expression melted into her beautiful smile. Bucky snorted at his friend's full body blush, the kid would probably never get past the hopeless puppy dog stage._

 _"Only the good stuff," Bucky patted Steve on the back, as he walked ahead to greet his own date._

 _"I hear you're really good at sweeping the ladies off their feet," Ava met him halfway, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and pulling herself onto her toes for a quick kiss. He returns the embrace as he wraps his arms around her waste, pulling her closer and tickling her ear with his laughter._

 _"Is that what Bucky told you?"_

 _"He also told me that you were taking me dancing," she pulls her head back and grins at him as Howard Stark takes the stage._

 _"I got admit to you, I really don't know how to dance," Steve blushes and rubs his neck. Ava laughs._

 _"Neither do I," they grin at each other, both of them aware of each other's lack of dating experience._

 _"Guess we'll just have to teach each other," Ava laughs some more, the warmth in Steve's stomach growing. He doesn't think he'll ever grow tired of that sound._

 _"Oh gosh. We're both going to be terrible then," he agrees as Bucky comes and throws his arms over both their shoulders._

 _"Come on you love birds, the show is starting!"_

 _They walk up far enough that they both can see, keeping their hands entwined as the inventor started to speak._

 _"Ladies and gentlemen, what if I told you that in just a few short years, your automobile won't even have to touch the ground at all," Howard turned to thank the women taking the wheels off of the car, "With Stark robotic reversion technology, you'll be able to do just that."_

 _"Holy cow." Steve glances over at his friends, Bucky and Connie completely awestruck at the hovering car, but Ava only has one unimpressed eyebrow raised. She scoffs as the car suddenly malfunctions and drops to the stage._

 _"I did say a few years, didn't I?" The crowd laughs and disperses, the two couples walking together until Steve pauses as they pass the recruitment center._

 _"Hey, Steve, what do you say we treat these girls…and there he goes again." Bucky rolls his eyes as he drags Connie towards the other couple. "Come on. You're kind of missing the point of a double date. We're taking the girls dancing. I promised Ava I'd get them to play that slow dance for you guys."_

 _"You're right, I'm sorry I can do this another time," Steve glances at the blonde guiltily._

 _"It's fine, Steve. James, you and Connie go ahead, we'll catch up," Ava needed a break from the perky brunette hanging off of Bucky's arm anyways. Steve smiles at her, understanding and also thankful._

 _"You're really gonna do this again?" Bucky sends a betrayed look at the smaller woman, "and since when have you started encouraging this?"_

 _They both shrug their shoulders causing Bucky to run a hand down his face in exasperation._

 _"As who? Steve from Ohio? They'll catch you. Or worse, they'll actually take you."_

 _"Look, I know you don't think I can do this."_

 _"This isn't a back alley, Steve. It's war!" Ava rolls her eyes and pulls Connie towards the pier; she has heard this argument so many times before._

 _"Well, this is a waste of time. Come on, Connie. They're going to be whining at each other for at least another few minutes," Steve snorts at her bluntness while Bucky looks even more betrayed than before, "let us know when you're done."_

 _Steve turns back to Bucky after the girls have moved on._

 _"I know it's a war. You don't have to tell me." Bucky sighs at the determined look in Steve's eyes, annoyed at his friend._

 _"Why are you so keen to fight? There are so many important jobs."_

 _"What am I gonna do? Collect scrap metal…"_

 _"Yes!"_

 _"…in my little red wagon." Steve gives Bucky an indignant look that the man pointedly ignores._

 _"Why not?"_

 _"I'm not gonna sit in a factory, Bucky."_

 _"I don't…"_

 _"Bucky, come on! There are men laying down their lives. I got no right to do any less than them. That's what you don't understand. This isn't about me."_

 _"Right," Bucky glances meaningfully at Ava, "Cause you got nothing to prove."_

 _"I don't," Steve notices and bristles at the implication._

 _"Look," Bucky puts a hand on Steve's shoulder which the shorter man shrugs off quickly, "I honestly don't think Ava is the kind of dame to care whether you're a war hero or not."_

 _"She isn't! And I'm not trying to prove anything to her," Steve gave a frustrated noise, "I'm trying to protect her!"_

 _"I get what you're saying, Steve, but one man can't change a war; it'll continue whether you're there or not. You're more use to Ava alive than dead, plus I don't think she needs much protecting," Bucky shuddered, Ava was tiny but terrifying._

 _"I'm gonna do this either way Bucky. I have to," the taller man breathes out his frustrations as the girls come up behind him._

 _"Hey, Sarge! Are we still going dancing?" Bucky turns to Connie and nods before turning back to Steve._

 _"Don't do anything stupid until I get back."_

 _"How can I? You're taking all the stupid with you."_

 _"You're a punk," Bucky hugs Steve goodbye as he glances at Ava, "I doubt I can trust you to keep him out of trouble."_

 _"Probably not," she shrugs and accepts a hug as well._

 _"Jerk. Be careful," Bucky walks away with a hand slinked around Connie's waste, "Don't win the war till I get there!"_

 _"Come on, Steve. Let's get you enlisted," Ava smiles at him as she pushes him toward the reception desk, laughing as he tells the receptionist that he just moved here from Ohio. When his name is called a few minutes later, he runs his fingers over hers._

 _"I think I owe you a dance later," she laughs and gives him a kiss on the cheek._

 _"I'll be waiting right here."_

* * *

***line***

Steve stares at the dainty hand in his own. It's strange, she was small before the serum, but they had almost been the same size. Their hands had fit perfectly together, now his dwarfed hers. He sighed as he looks away from their entwined hands to her sleeping face.

"The Captain America museum makes no mention of a pre-serum girlfriend," Tony walks into the med bay with Natasha following. He eyes the super soldier and then the woman on the bed, "I'm taking it you two were serious?"

"We were dating, she was there when I enlisted," he squeezes her hand gently, almost as through he is afraid he'll break her, "she was going to be my girl when I got back." Tony choked on his water as Bruce came in with a clipboard.

"You were going to get married? What about Peggy?"

"What do you mean?" Steve raised an eyebrow, "Peggy and I were just friends."

"But-but-there are like so many stories about you two. They even made a movie! It's a classic!" The genius was going every memory he had of his aunt, but when he thought about it she never actually said she and Steve had dated.

"And a remake of that movie," Natasha chimed in.

"That was terrible," Tony scoffed and Bruce hummed in agreement while Steve blinked in confusion.

"They did?" Both men nod as the veteran's eyebrows shot up, "Peggy had expressed some interest at the beginning but she was the one who gave me back Ava's ring, she never pushed it after that."

"What happened?"

"Mugging," Steve pulled out the dog tags from under his shirt exposing the small diamond ring that hung there with them, "she always got on my case about being reckless, about getting into fights I couldn't win, yet she was the one that ended up dying trying to save someone else."

He paused as he took out his wallet and pulled out a piece of paper, handing it over to his teammates. It was a black and white photo of two people in front of a Ferris wheel, the man was facing the camera smiling at the photographer while the woman was looking back over her shoulder, slightly turned away. The woman's left hand was on the man's chest, the same small diamond ring sparkling in the sun as her right hand was stretched out, pointing toward the ride behind them.

"Fury tracked down some of our pictures after the attack on New York. Bucky took that the day I officially proposed, it had been his idea to bribe the worker to stop us at the top," he lifted the ring still attached to the chain and held it between his fingers, "when my plane went down I thought I was going to finally see her again, but then I woke up."

A quiet washes over the four of them before Tony takes a slight breath.

"No wonder you were such a crab ass when we met."

"TONY!" Natasha hits the genius on the shoulder as Steve laughs.

"I deserved that," Steve glanced at Bruce, "Any idea when she'll wake up?"

"She should be soon, the weapon that Barnes used on her did some damage but her cells are healing at a remarkable rate. The only reason she is asleep now is to replenish the energy needed to heal at this rate," Bruce pauses, glancing at Tony, "it is actually almost the exact same as Elli's regenerative abilities, if only a little faster."

Both the genius and super soldier blink at that.

"What're you saying?"

"I'm saying that she has the same healing powers and was glowing just like Elli does."

"So what you're saying is that Cap's girlfriend is actually a _Skīr-r_ in disguise _?_ "

"Maybe?"

The group sits in contemplative silence before Bruce leaves to run some tests and Natasha follows after him. Tony is just about to leave himself when the woman on the bed starts to stir. Steve sits up straighter as her eyes flutter open, a molten gold that matches his daughter's own irises shocking Tony into a sudden realization.

Ava blinks as white ceiling comes into focus, the florescent lights making her head ache slightly. She glances around until her eyes fall on the Steve Hogan she had met earlier.

"Ava, honey," a muscular arm reaches for her cheek causing her to jerk back in surprise. A kicked puppy dog look falls over his features as her eyes sweep over his figure in suspicion, "please, Ava, it's me."

Her eyes narrow as she scoots farther away. Energy crackles at her fingertips under the covers as she prepares to blow this most recent hydra base and cruel trick back to the hell it came from. Before she can, though, something glitters in the corner of her vision bringing her attention to the center of the man's chest. An engagement ring hangs with a set of dog tags—her engagement ring.

"You can't be him," she shakes her head as she reaches out, "you're too different."

"They gave me a serum," he lets her lift the dog tags and run her finger over his name, "it made me stronger. I know I look different but I'm still me. I'm still yours, Ava."

"They told me you were dead, that the serum killed you," she looks up and touches his face, feeling the familiar yet foreign jaw line.

"Who told you that?" Steve's face scrunched in confusion.

"When I woke up, there was a man and a woman," she touched his hands now, blinking at how different they were.

"Who were they?" Tony felt like he was interrupting a private moment but he needed to start getting some answers if his suspicions were correct. Those golden eyes met his brown ones and lit up in recognition.

"Tony Stark," she scrunched her nose in a way that was too familiar to Steve, "I'm not sure, I don't remember much from that time. I only interacted with the woman a couple times every couple years, the man only ever wore a medical mask around me. I think they were American but it doesn't matter now, the lab was destroyed when Hydra came."

"Hydra? Do you work for them?" Tony glared at her as Steve tensed.

"No, they tried to form me into the perfect weapon like Sergeant Barnes but unfortunately the Winter Soldier program wouldn't take," she levels Tony with a glare of her own, "Instead we have a lovely relationship where they just perform excruciating experiments on me so I blow up their facilities and escape every couple of years."

"And the reemergence of the Winter Soldier being was due to your latest escape?"

"Yes, he is the only Hydra operative that can bring me in. They know I would never hurt him permanently," Steve feels a little light headed as he learns the fate of his two best friends.

"Why hide out at Midtown Elementary?"

"Last time I got out they found me by chance, they can trace large energy spikes but they must have developed something new to specifically trace my energy signature. Before I broke out I felt a surge of energy in the city, I wanted to be near that energy to protect it. I think you know what that surge was." An understanding is reached between the two as Steve just blinks in confusion, was she talking about Elli?

"You're being awfully cooperative," Tony sat back and crossed his arms.

"I hadn't planned on interfering; you were doing fine on your own and I was content on watching over her from afar without complicating things further. But things are different now, you know I exist and I would like to have your permission to get to know my daughter."

"Daughter!? Elli is your daughter? You guys-you-how?" Steve flushed as his eyes darted back and forth between the two. Ava's eyes softened as she glanced back at Steve.

"It's complicated but long story short, Elli is both mine and Tony's child due to Hydra's interference."

"Don't worry capsicle, I didn't have sex with your alien girlfriend," Steve sputtered and flushed even more as Ava rolled her eyes at the billionaire. She keeps her eyes on him as he crosses his arms, "Elli means everything to me."

"I know. I feel the same way. That is why I left her with you, I couldn't protect her back then," she grimaces, "I won't force my way into your lives, but I will never stop trying to keep her safe."

Tony regards her before sighing and standing up.

"I'll think about it," he walks to the door, "but until then, I think you and Cap should catch up. I'll give you an update about Barnes later, Rogers."

An awkward silence is left as Tony closes the door behind him. Ava looks down in her lap, unsure what to say to the man sitting next to her.

"So, are you not human then?" Ava keeps herself from flinching, she never intended for Steve to find out.

"No, I'm not."

" _Skīr-r_ , then?" Ava lifts her head at the word and Steve continues noting her surprise, "Thor explained to Tony who your people are."

"Of course he did," Steve raises his eyebrow as she rolls her eyes.

"You know Thor?"

"No, Asgardians are just annoying to deal with," she does a half grin and he can't help but laugh at the strangeness of it all. She feels slightly at ease after watching him laugh, "I'm sorry I never told you."

"Don't be," he rests his hand over hers, "this is different but it doesn't change how I feel about you, you're still the same girl I fell in love with."

"I missed you, Steve," her smile lights up his world. For the first time since he went under the ice, a familiar warmth fills him.

"I'm sorry I kept you waiting so long," he reaches around his neck and unclasps the chain. He holds out the diamond ring with a goofy grin on his face, "I'd like to return this, if you'll still have me?"

She pulls him down and kisses him, her every touch igniting his skin. When they break apart, she slips the ring on her finger before making room on the bed. They lay next to each other, feeling comfort in each other's body heat—in knowing that their most important person is alive and breathing.

"I love you, too."

* * *

 **This chapter was kind of steve and ava heavy but I was having a lot of fun with their relationship and it turned into this. Oops. Promise Elli will be in the next chapter much more lol**


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